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The indicator shows the volume of investments in infrastructure of road, rail, air and maritime transport in the Republic of Slovenia in the period 1992-2008; this includes all investments in infrastructure with the exception of regular maintenance costs. Infrastructure investments include expenses for new construction or the expansion of existing infrastructure, including restoration, modernisation and larger repair work. Infrastructure includes land, the construction of permanent paths, buildings, bridges and tunnels as well as fixed installations, equipment and installations in connection with them (signalisation, telecommunications, catenaries, power plants, etc.). Infrastructure maintenance costs are costs for the maintenance of infrastructure in such a condition that it may operate (SORS, 2004). Infrastructure of air and maritime transport also includes investments in equipment for traffic management and the provision of safety. |
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- Provision of necessary transport infrastructure for land transport as well as maritime and air transport, which will follow the principles of sustainable and coherent regional development (RePPRS and Operational Programme of Environmental and Transport Infrastructure Development for the Period 2007–2013)
- Development of balanced and equally burdened transport sub-systems (RePPRS and the Operational Programme of Environmental and Transport Infrastructure Development for the Period 2007–2013) - Development of the Slovenian port and completion of its infrastructure and inland backbone transport infrastructure, and the establishment of the system of sea motorways (Operational Programme of Environmental and Transport Infrastructure Development for the Period 2007–2013) The Operational Programme of Environmental and Transport Infrastructure Development for the Period 2007–2013 specifically includes the following projects: - construction of 28 km of new railway tracks and modernisation of 400 km of existing railway tracks - construction of or modernisation of 500 km of cycling tracks - construction of 20 km of new and modernisation of 130 km of existing roads - construction of 15 new non-level crossings - construction of 65 km of new motorway sections - construction of 1800 m of new operative shoreline. |
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The indicator investments in infrastructure of individual transport sub-systems normally indicates the real transport policy of countries, regions or towns, since often investments are implemented in the infrastructure of road transport despite the declaratory support of sustainable transport modes in strategic documents at the operational level.
The indicator shows that in the last ten years the Republic of Slovenia has been directing the majority (around 90 %) of its growing investments in infrastructure into the road network, especially the motorway network. Railways, which have a much higher sustainability potential, are staying behind in development due to a lack of investment. Existing railway tracks, built primarily in the 19th century, do not fit the modern transport needs with regard to their parameters and their capabilities, and are completely non-competitive compared to the modern road network of Slovenia and modernised railways in the majority of the EU countries. Air and maritime transport do not have a significant role in the structure of total investments in infrastructure.
The majority of infrastructure investments will be devoted to the motorway network at least for another ten years, since the Resolution on the National Motorway Construction Programme in the Republic of Slovenia (OG RS, no. 50/2004) stipulates annual expenses for the completion of the remaining motorway network of between 200 and 400 million EUR (around 1.6 % of GDP) in the period 2003-2013. However, already in 2007 their value exceeded 600 million EUR. Besides the budget, the most important source of financial resources will be borrowings and long-term infrastructure bonds. After the completion of the motorway network (expected in 2013), construction financing will not end, since the motorway programme costs (in total, more than 10 billion EUR) will have to be repaid until 2033. At the same time, the management and maintenance costs of this network will also increase. Future investments in railway infrastructure are less structured, since at this point they do not have a basis in the revised national programme for this area. However, projects for the modernisation of the 5th Trans-European corridor network, which was also highly ranked by the EU in its priority tasks, are being implemented with EU support.
However, in the last number of years it is possible to detect changes in the ratio of investments of state resources in individual transport sub-systems. In the year 2000, the resources for the motorway network amounted to 80 %, while 13 % were intended for state roads and only 5 % for the railway network. With the completion of the motorway network the investments have slowly begun to move primarily to the construction and modernisation of the railway network; in 2008, the investments for the motorway network decreased to 70 %, while the resources for the railway infrastructure increased to 14 %. It is also possible to detect a slight increase in investments in state roads, the investment share of which increased to 16 % in 2008. Hereby, it has to be emphasized that the resources of motorway construction in the last years have been coming less from the budget and more from the resources collected by tolls. The construction has been frequently financed by various forms of borrowing – for instance, by loans from international financial organisations, foreign financial loans and domestic financial loans.
Some EU Member States have also been dealing with investments in infrastructure of non-motorised transport modes (walking, cycling) by constructing state cycling networks and walking paths as well as encouraging sustainable transport modes (by co-financing the local infrastructure of these transport modes). In the recent period, the state and the local communities in the Republic of Slovenia have also devoted more attention to the cycling infrastructure. In the past, a strategy for the establishment of the state cycling network was prepared, while the investments (in the last six years app. 1.7 million EUR) have frequently been complemented by initiatives at regional and local levels in the form of common investments in cycling connections, which primarily have tourist and recreational importance. Increased investments in cycling infrastructure can be detected also in larger towns, usually due to the pressure of the civil society.
The last available data on investments in transport infrastructure for the EU, collected by the European Environment Agency, refers to the period 1990–1995 (EEA, 2002). Due to the outdated data, a comparison of Slovenian data on investments in transport infrastructure with the data of EU Member States is not appropriate. For such an analysis, new collection and publication of data at the European level shall be necessary.
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Data for Slovenia
Objectives summarised by:
Other sources and literature: |
