Evaluation Tools for Transport Infrastructures: Social Return On Investments

In this paper we analyse the Social Return On Investment (SROI) as a form of evaluation that contributes to a wider analysis of investments. SROI offers an overview of how change has been generated and experienced by beneficiaries and stakeholders. The method uses monetary values to represent the social and economic results of investments infrastructure investments, by calculating the impact created for each euro invested in the project and expressing this impact in the form of a ratio. However, the emphasis is more on creating economic and environmentally sustainable values than on the financial aspect. Nevertheless, SROI is designed to stimulate funding by private as well as public entities of innovation in, and wider provision, of programs for remediating or preventing the absence of proper evaluations. We verified the empirical applicability of SROI for the evaluation of projects in the transport sector. Finally, we discussed a case study related to the evaluation of a rail services renovation plan aimed at modernizing the local rolling stock.