Engaging Multiple Actors in Large-Scale Transport Infrastructure Project Appraisal: An Application of MAMCA to the Case of HS2 High-Speed Rail

Table 5

Full descriptions of the 28 assessment criteria for HS2 Phase I, provided in the questionnaire as additional information for respondents.

Criterion	Description
Direct project impacts   (internal costs & benefits)
(1) Journey cost & affordability	Journey cost (proposed or expected) is the price passengers pay for a trip. In this context, affordability is defined narrowly in terms of whether this particular means of transport is expected to be affordable to would-be users. If your concern is about what might happen to other means of transport, whether currently in existence or proposed for the future, as a result of this project being realized, please refer to “Equity and distributional effects.”
(2) Journey experience	Journey experience is a measure of the real and perceived physical and social environment experienced while travelling. It includes the overall quality of facilities and infrastructure (stations and rolling stock), as well as more tangible factors like availability of seats, comfort, provision of relevant information, safety & security, crowdedness and other stress factors. Moreover, experience of time as perceived by users includes entertainment and scenery.
(3) Journey reliability & system resilience	Journey reliability refers to variability in journey time that individuals are unable to predict due to recurring events (e.g., congestion) or non-recurring events (e.g., accidents). For public transport this is usually measured as the standard deviation of lateness divided by average lateness. Resilience refers to the ability of a transport system or network to recover from disruptions caused by natural disasters or human factors. Resilience and reliability are related in that when resilience is high it is reflected in reliability as well.
(4) Journey time	Journey time is defined as travel time from station of origin to station of destination. High-speed rail is aimed at reducing travel time.
(5) Project costs	Total cost of project to taxpayers, comprising both upfront and ongoing costs. Upfront capital investment includes construction costs from main work contracts (stations, tracks, rolling stock, power, and signalling), land and property costs (acquisition and compensation), administrative costs (design, management, consultation). Ongoing costs include train and station operations, maintenance, and renewal costs.
(6) Project delivery risks	Uncertainties during planning and construction stages regarding final project outcome. These risks include cost overruns, construction delays, and underperformance of new technology. Risks can be mitigated by consulting key experts and stakeholders early in the process and by conducting pilot studies. Risks can be exacerbated when cost estimates are subject to optimism bias (underestimation, whether intentional or unintentional).
(7) Rail capacity for freight	Any increase in rail capacity will also increase the capacity available for freight, whether directly through the construction of new tracks available to freight and passengers, or indirectly through the construction of new passenger lines, thus freeing up tracks that were previously shared with passengers. An increase in rail capacity available for freight transport would be able to meet growing demand for freight transport and/or reduce rail costs for freight users. This in turn could result in shifting freight from roads to rail. If your interest in rail capacity is primarily related to modal shift and the resulting possibility of reducing CO2 emissions, please refer to “Carbon footprint.” If your interest is more generally in increasing capacity and reducing costs for freight users, please select this criterion.
(8) Rail capacity for passengers	Passenger capacity is the total number of people a means of transport is able to transfer in a given period (measured for example in person-km per day). Increasing passenger capacity is particularly relevant when travel demand is expected to grow and policymakers want to satisfy that demand. One way of increasing passenger capacity is to increase frequency of service, which is also made possible by increasing train speed. Other methods of increasing capacity include lengthening trains or building new tracks/routes. In addition to meeting growing travel demand, increasing passenger capacity may also encourage a shift from other modes of passenger transport (air, car) to rail. If your interest in rail capacity is primarily related to modal shift and the resulting possibility of reducing CO2 emissions, please refer to “Carbon footprint.” If your interest in rail capacity is more directly about meeting passenger needs for travel, please select this criterion.
(9) Traffic & transport disruption	Welfare impacts on rail users caused by transport disruption during project construction (e.g., WCML upgrade) and/or on non-rail users caused by traffic congestion from construction trucks (HS2). This is primarily a construction-phase impact. If your interest is in longer-term impacts on traffic patterns and other infrastructure conflicts, please refer to “Community severance” and/or “Land use & urban planning.” If your interest in traffic patterns is related to CO2 emissions, please refer to “Carbon footprint.”
(10) Transport integration & connectivity	Extent to which the proposed project would be integrated with and connected to other transport. This includes intermodal integration, which refers to how well different modes of transport (train, bus, ferry, etc.) are interconnected. Intermodal integration can also refer to provisions for active modes of transport (cycling, walking, etc.). When such connections are smooth and convenient, intermodal integration can play an important role in promoting green and healthy/active travel. Transport integration also includes connectivity of travel segments within the same mode of transport (train-to-train, bus-to-bus, etc.).
	Connectivity is a closely related concept that considers, alongside total travel time, passenger discomfort associated with waiting, transfer, and access/egress times. Transit connectivity aims to provide attractive and “seamless” transfers along multimodal paths as part of the door-to-door passenger chain.
Indirect societal impacts   (externalities - people)
(11) Accessibility	Accessibility reflects the range of opportunities and choices people have in connecting with employment, education, essential services, and social networks. It can be measured as a catchment area and is concerned with travel horizons (journey times and distances). It is more holistic than transport user benefits, as it considers the availability and physical accessibility of a transport service in connection with the location of other services and activities. Accessibility also includes option value (the value of the existence of the service for convenience or unplanned trips) and non-use value (appreciating that a service is available for others).
(12) Accidents & safety	Risk of individuals (both transport users and non-users) being killed or injured as a result of accidents, usually measured in number of casualties, fatalities or injuries in a given period. Refers to both construction and operation phases. Expected casualties will vary with infrastructure design and route, depending for example on road intersections, crossings/bridges, and size of the neighbouring population.
(13) Community disruption & severance; blight	Community disruption refers to the temporary, disruptive impacts of project construction on residential property, public spaces, and communities as a whole. It includes impacts on the amenity of residents in the remaining parts of the residential development, including pleasantness and visual intrusion.
	Community severance refers to the more lasting impacts on a community, even after construction is finished and the transport system is operating. Severance is the real or perceived isolation of residential properties or community facilities due to physical or visual barriers caused by transport infrastructure or traffic flows. Severance is usually measured as a physical barrier to pedestrian movement, but also to cyclists, equestrians, children or other vulnerable groups.
	Blight is the reduction in property or neighbourhood value near proposed project sites. Blight takes place as soon as a potential project or route is proposed and is particularly of concern when the design and consultation period extends over many years. Blight becomes less of a problem once a decision has been reached, as property values in areas of rejected projects may recover and property owners affected by realized projects may be compensated. However, it is very much a problem for anyone who wants to sell affected property before a final decision has been reached.
(14) Equity & distributional effects	Concerns about the distribution of project costs and benefits across different social groups or geographical locations. Equity is concerned about equality of opportunity, with a particular focus on vulnerable groups. Affordability of transport (usually measured as proportion of income spent on transport) is related to equity when the realization of a particular project results in a change in the options available to others. This could happen if existing transport receives less funding as a result of another project being selected. Closely related is the concept of opportunity cost: what else could the money be spent on? Whereas equity emphasizes who receives the benefits (e.g., transportation for whom?), opportunity cost emphasizes what the money is spent on (transportation? education? sports? and within transportation, what kind of transport?) Both opportunity cost and equity involve prioritizing the spending of public money: on what and for whom?
(15) Land use & urban development	Impacts that new transport projects have on land use (residential, industrial or commercial) and allocation of activities – also referred to as Land-Use & Transport Interaction (LUTI). Changes in the transport system affect accessibility, which reallocates land uses and determines the location of new activities. Transport policies and measures (e.g., TOD, transit-oriented development) can lead to more energy-efficient urban forms. Of particular importance in the context of urban development is whether housing will be actively built along with transport infrastructure.
(16) Landscape/ townscape & cultural heritage	Landscape/townscape impacts refer to changes in the physical and cultural characteristics of the land and perceptions that make up and contribute to landscape character (“sense of place”). It consists of impacted topography, views, tree cover (for landscape) and all aspects of the urban form (for townscape), from construction plans along the route to overhead lines, stations, depots, tunnels and ventilation shafts, fences and barriers, bridges, etc. Cultural heritage impacts refer to archaeological and paleo-environmental remains (ancient burials; ancient environments), historic landscapes and buildings, and the built environment (both designated and non-designated assets), known collectively as heritage assets.
(17) Prestige & image	Prestige, public recognition, and positive media coverage that may be generated for the nation, a region, or public officials. Public exposure that a project may generate for its proponents or for politicians. This may also include the potential contribution of a project to creating a sense of regional or national identity or pride.
(18) Rail industry growth & innovation	Contribution to strategic goals of encouraging technological innovation, growth of commercial expertise within a specific industry, and development of new skills in the labour force. This may include the creation of dedicated training centres.
(19) Regional economic development & regeneration	Regional economic development refers to welfare benefits that are broader than transport user benefits. These wider economic impacts (WEI) affect the labour market, product market and land market: (1) agglomeration effects: accessibility of firms to other firms, products and workers; the increase in labour productivity from increased proximity, knowledge and technology spillovers; (2) welfare gain for firms whose goods and services require transport; and (3) increased tax revenues from the labour market. Regional development also includes rebalancing the national economy and bridging the North-South divide.; When infrastructure is located in areas designated for economic development under UK or EU regeneration programmes, projects can help meet regeneration goals by stimulating economic activity and employment.
Environmental impacts   (externalities - planet)
(20) Agriculture, forestry & soils	Soil quality impacts on agricultural and forestry land. The driver is land “taken” from agriculture and forestry for an infrastructure project, but the impact of concern is not an acreage issue, but rather the loss of high-quality farm soil. For infrastructure projects, a hectare is a hectare. But for farms, there are differences in soil quality, and this may not get compensated in the land price. Protecting high-quality agricultural and forestry land may also be considered a priority for society.
(21) Air quality	Impacts on local and regional air quality from dust and emissions during both project construction and operation. Impacts can be both positive (e.g., decreased emissions from road transport if modal shift occurs) and negative (e.g., increased emissions from diesel locomotives or increased road traffic around stations and depots).
	Pollutants impacting local and regional air quality include oxides of nitrogen (NOx), volatile organic compounds/hydrocarbons (VOC/HC/PAH), particulate matter (PM), oxides of sulphur (SOx), ozone (O3), carbon monoxide (CO), and trace metals. Global air pollutants (CO2 and other greenhouse gases) are covered under “carbon footprint”.
(22) Biodiversity & nature	Impacts on nature conservation arising from habitat loss and degradation, fragmentation of sites, severance of ecological corridors and networks, noise and visual disturbance, barrier effects to movement of fauna, artificial lighting, changes in water quality and quantity, air pollution, and mortality as a result of collisions with trains. Included here are impacts on protected species and habitats, such as Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs), National Parks, Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESAs), and ancient woodlands, as well as general ecological value beyond site boundaries.
(23) Carbon footprint	All greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with a project expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). Aside from CO2, which is the most significant GHG associated with transportation and energy use, GHGs include methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). A project’s carbon footprint comprises both embedded carbon and fuel carbon. Embedded carbon refers to CO2 emitted during project construction as well as in connection with producing the materials used in infrastructure (cement, steel etc.). Fuel carbon refers to CO2 emitted during transport operations. Fuel carbon emissions are driven by two factors: (1) efficiency of energy form (electricity vs. liquid fuel); and (2) energy source (renewable vs. fossil fuel).
	To the extent that rail transport is more fuel and/or carbon efficient than road transport, modal shift from road and/or air to rail could lead to a net reduction in carbon footprint.
(24) Material footprint	Similar to carbon footprint, this measure looks at a project’s use of raw materials (e.g., metal and minerals), both embedded in the infrastructure and related to operations. It measures both “used” extraction (the portion of materials that end up in the infrastructure) and the “unused” extraction (the material waste associated with mining and extraction).
(25) Noise & vibration	Nuisance to people caused by noise and vibration from road and rail traffic, during both project construction and transport operation. Impacts can be on individual dwellings (residential) and on communities (non-residential, e.g., open spaces, schools, hospitals, offices, hotels).
(26) Solid waste & disposal	Refers to solid waste from construction (e.g., earthworks) and operating activities (e.g., wastes from stations, rolling stock or track operation and maintenance), as well as the impacts associated with its disposal. Of particular concern in the case of large infrastructure projects is the need to excavate enormous quantities of dirt to make way for the project and the resulting need to dispose of vast quantities of soil, some of which may be contaminated from previous land use. In addition to the quantity of waste generated, this criterion covers impacts associated with where and how (e.g., landfill vs. recycling) waste will be disposed of.
(27) Water & land contamination	Water contamination can result either directly from the disposal of liquid waste into surface and ground water or indirectly through soil contamination. Soil contaminants often leach into surface and ground water, which is why land and water contamination are interconnected. Ground contamination can occur either during construction or during operation and includes leaks and spillages from line-side equipment and trains, in depots or along train tracks.
(28) Water resources & flood risk	Impacts (other than contamination) on structure and flow of surface waterways, both natural and artificial (e.g., changing the course of streams or channels; emptying lakes or reservoirs). Impacts on drainage networks (e.g., bridges and embankments obstructing path of floodwaters) and associated implications for flood risk.