A framework for assessing the impact of transportation facility investment on local development

Abstract : This study proposes an approach for assessing the impacts resulting from a new inter modal terminal in a regional transportation system. This problem is of importance when choosing a location for a transportation terminal and then planning the corresponding investments. One of the main difficulties of this task is related with the estimation of future demand over the modified transportation network which has direct influence on transportation revenues and costs as well as on local economy. The proposed approach makes use of two different optimization models: One model is devoted to passenger and freight demand forecasting taking into account the modified accessibility of the multimodal transportation network, the other one defines the global transport supply according with a profit maximization behavior for the involved transport system. The case study considered to illustrate the proposed approach is relative to a new medium size airport in a rapid developing rural area of Brazil.