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Over the past decade, China has built 25,000 km of dedicated high-speed railway—more than the rest of the world combined. What can we learn from this remarkable experience? China’s High-Speed Rail Development examines the Chinese experience to draw lessons for countries considering investing in high-speed rail. The report scrutinizes the planning and delivery mechanisms that enabled the rapid construction of the high-speed rail system. It highlights the role of long-term planning, consistent plan execution, and a joint venture structure that ensures active participation of provincial and local governments in project planning and financing. Traffic on China’s high-speed trains has grown to 1.7 billion passengers a year. The study examines the characteristics of the markets for which high-speed rail is competitive in China. It discusses the pricing and service design considerations that go into making high-speed rail services competitive with other modes and factors such as good urban connectivity that make the service attractive to customers. One of the most remarkable aspects of the Chinese experience is the rapid pace of high-quality construction. The report looks at the role of strong capacity development within and cooperation among China Railway Corporation, rail manufacturers, universities, research institutions, laboratories, and engineering centers that allowed for rapid technological advancement and localization of technology. It describes the project delivery structures and incentives for delivering quality and timely results. Finally, the report analyzes the financial and economic sustainability of the investment in high-speed rail. It finds that a developing country can price high-speed rail services affordably and still achieve financial viability, but this requires very high passenger density. Economic viability similarly depends on high passenger density.

Imagine a city that is more competitive, with higher-quality neighborhoods, lower infrastructure costs, and lower C02 emissions per unit of activity. This city has lower combined transportation and housing costs for its residents than other cities at similar levels of economic activity. Its residents can access most jobs and services easily through a combination of low-cost public transport, walking and cycling. Its core economic and population centers are resilient to natural hazards. It is able to finance improvements to public space, connectivity, and social housing by capturing value created through integrated land use and transport planning. Such a vision has never been more relevant for rapidly growing cities than it is today. Transit-oriented development (TOD) can play a major role in achieving such a vision. Based on an observation of methodologies applied in different countries, the World Bank's Community of Practice on Transit Oriented Development has developed a methodology called the 3 Value (3V) Framework, which outlines a typology to facilitate TOD implementation at the metropolitan and urban scale in various contexts. The 3V Framework equips policy and decision makers with quantified indicators to better understand the interplay between the economic vision for the city, its land use and mass transit network, and urban qualities and market vibrancy around its mass transit stations. This book provides examples of approaches taken by cities like London and New York to align their economic, land use, and transport planning to generate jobs and high value. We hope this book will help readers develop a coherent vision, policies, and strategy to leverage the value created through enhanced connectivity and accessibility and make cities even more appealing places to live, work, play and do business.

This survey reviews the current state of the economic literature, assessing the impact of transport investments and policies on growth, inclusion, and sustainability in a developing country context. It also discusses the specific implementation challenges of transport interventions in developing countries.

This issue includes the following headings: mass rapid transit: a tool for urban expansion; financing: beyond sovereign guarantees; and low-income housing: lessons from Latin America.

Transport was not part of the millennium development goals (MDGs) for 2000-15, which were adopted at the United Nations in September 2000. The omission was widely viewed in the transport community as a missed opportunity to use the strong linkage between transport and economic development to advance the attainment of the MDGs. Now a new 15-year development framework, the sustainable development goals (SDGs) for 2015-30, are about to be endorsed at the United Nations summit to be held September 25-27, 2015. This time, transport will be part of the framework as a key contributor to sustainable development. The SDGs comprise 17 goals and 169 targets; five of those targets directly involve transport, and attaining at least another six will critically depend on it. But efforts to influence the post-2015 development agenda will go on after the summit because the question of what indicators will be used to measure success is yet to be resolved. Attention in the transport community must now pivot toward that question to assure the selection of the most effective measures.

Smart grids are an essential element in improving efficiency that is relevant to utilities in all countries - from advanced utilities with robust grids to those whose grids barely keep up with demand. This note provides practical guidance for stakeholders in defining smart-grid goals, identifying priorities, and structuring investment plans. While most of these principles apply to any part of the electricity grid (transmission, distribution, off-grid), the note focuses on the distribution network. Modernizing the grid can help utilities address issues in service delivery such as reducing technical and commercial losses, promoting energy conservation, managing peak demand, improving reliability, integrating high levels of distributed generation (such as mini-grids and power sources with variable output), and accommodating the rising use of electric vehicles. To harness these benefits, it is essential that well-designed plans be developed for the implementation of smart-grid goals and objectives. Smart elements in a grid will differ greatly depending on the state of the power system and the country context. A smart-grid roadmap will therefore vary considerably across countries, but smart technology is essential for successful modernization of any grid.

The case for climate action has never been stronger. Around the world, climate change is putting at risk the lives of millions of people as well as threatening many coastal cities and endangering trillion of dollars of investments in transport infrastructure and services. The Twenty-First Conference of the Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will bring heads of state and ministers to Paris at the end of November to reach a global climate agreement with far-reaching implications for low-carbon and climate-resilient growth. Transport is playing a greater role in COP21 than in past UNFCCC conferences as a critical part of the solution: a sector that can contribute to both reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and building economy wide resilience to the impacts of climate change. In view of the sector’s potential, the heavily debated transport question is how to sustainably meet the rising global demand for greater interconnectedness and mobility. The World Bank and the seven other leading multilateral development banks have joined forces with the Paris Process for Mobility and Climate (PPMC) and the rest of the transport community to call for more action on transport and climate change.

This note is the first in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) knowledge notes aimed to promote debate, discussion, and dissemination of knowledge for the most pertinent development questions the GCC region faces. It is based on the pollution load assessment reports for Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar prepared as part of the Gulf Environmental Partnership and Action Program national activities led by Helena Naber and Samia Al-Duaij.

Urban transport systems are essential for economic development and improving citizens' quality of life. To establish high-quality and affordable transport systems, cities must ensure their financial sustainability to fund new investments in infrastructure while also funding maintenance and operation of existing facilities and services. However, many cities in developing countries are stuck in an "underfunding trap" for urban transport, in which large up-front investments are needed for new transport infrastructure that will improve the still small-scale, and perhaps, poor-quality systems, but revenue is insufficient to cover maintenance and operation expenses, let alone new investment projects. The urban transport financing gap in these cities is further widened by the implicit subsidies for the use of private cars, which represent a minority of trips but contribute huge costs in terms of congestion, sprawl, accidents, and pollution. Using an analytical framework based on the concept of "Who Benefits Pays," 24 types of financing instruments are assessed in terms of their social, economic and environmental impacts and their ability to fund urban transport capital investments, operational expenses, and maintenance. Urban transport financing needs to be based on an appropriate mix of complementary financing instruments. In particular for capital investments, a combination of grants –from multiple levels of government– and loans together with investments through public private partnerships could finance large projects that benefit society. Moreover, the property tax emerges as a key financing instrument for capital, operation, and maintenance expenses. By choosing the most appropriate mix of financing instruments and focusing on wise investments, cities can design comprehensive financing for all types of urban transport projects, using multi-level innovative revenue sources that promote efficient pricing schemes, increase overall revenue, strengthen sustainable transport, and cover capital investments, operation, and maintenance for all parts of a public transport system, "from the sidewalk to the subway."