Financing of Transport Infrastructure and Operation

 

The course “Financing Transport Infrastructure and Operation” gives students a deeper understanding of the legal situation regarding the funding of transport infrastructure in Germany and in Europe. The three chairs of the course group “Transport and Spatial Planning” at the Faculty of Civil Engineering cooperate in order to offer and supervise this module. These chairs are the Chair of Urban and Transport Planning, the Chair of Highway Engineering, and the Chair of Railway Engineering and Transport Economics at RWTH Aachen University.

The Chair of Urban and Transport Planning conveys the legal fundamentals of financing transport infrastructure at the federal, federal state, regional, and local level. This includes knowledge of tax and funding models of local infrastructural measures in Germany and other countries, economic feasibility studies for the evaluation of inner-city infrastructure, and strategies and measures for maintaining and updating local infrastructure.

For this assignment, students will independently work on research questions relevant to the topic of the course and present their findings as part of the lecture. Knowledge of the basics of construction law, planning law, traffic and railway law, knowledge of the planning process and the basics of financing transport infrastructure are all required for this master course.

 

Teaching Aims

• A deeper understanding of the legal situation regarding the financing of transport infrastructure in Germany and Europe
• The ability to use methods of financial accounting and economic efficiency calculation
• The ability to independently plan and maintain public infrastructure
• Using models of infrastructure financing