The investment decision process: how to formulate priorities in the transport sector

Abstract This paper focuses on a model to prioritise transport projects for investment while maximizing the objectives and meeting the budget limit for capital investment. The paper is organised as follows. In the first part a review of the literature on the topic is presented by analyzing drawbacks and limitations of different approaches. Mainly this part gives emphasis to goal-programming and linear programming models and to the use of multicriteria analysis. In the second part an application of a goal-programming model is illustrated with reference to transport projects identified by a local administration. Finally, conclusions and recommendations are presented.