The correlations between investments in transport infrastructure and territorial development continue to concern public authorities. They are responsible for optimising the allocation of financial resources, and they are interested in the correct short- and long-term estimations of investments in transport infrastructure’s consequences for development. The direct and indirect effects of transport infrastructure are present in the socio-economic assessment methodologies of projects. Despite the recorded progress, uncertainties remain in technical assessments, especially socio-economic ones, and they do not remove decision-makers’ concerns regarding the necessity and appropriateness of investments. Based on these aspects, this paper aimed to clarify the effects of new infrastructure on socio-economic development.

For logistic chains that have a maritime component, the ports transition involves a set of specific operations inside maritime container terminals. This can be cargo handling operations from the terrestrial vehicle in the storage area of ports, from port storage area in the maritime ships, as well as storage operations in the port area and other container terminal activities. Taking into consideration the multi-flow interactions and the non-uniform arrival of vessels and inland vehicles, discrete event simulation stands as a feasible technique for investigating berthing capacity during the initial planning stage of the terminal or for operative planning of logistic processes at the terminal. If the storage area is analysed as a queuing system, the quality serving attributes could be evaluate. When different distributions for arrival flows of the containers in the maritime container terminal are taken into consideration, the quality serving attributes are difficult to estimate. In our paper, a discrete simulation model is developed in ARENA software for case of a maritime container terminal. The estimation of the general measures of performance for the container port terminals through simulation could provide data for the implementation in the management plans by port administrations.

The paper presents a method for optimizing the financing option for transport infrastructure project. The execution time for large project is substantial and the social costs generated during the construction phase are insufficient included in the assessment models. These are the main reasons for starting the research to extend the project evaluation methods with procedures that consider also social costs during the implementation of the project, besides the social costs after work completion. The proposed method aims to enhance the solution given by the current applied methods for investment assessment. Starting from the results of the present procedures of transport investment assessment, two approaches are presented. The first one assumes that the work starts at the reference year and different construction schemes can be applied. The optimal time of project implementation is determined considering the social costs during construction and after project implementation. In the second approach, the purpose is to determine the moments of the starting and the completion of the works for minimum of the losses caused by the social costs before and during the project implementation. The paper emphasizes that social cost during transport infrastructure work must be considered in investment timing. In this regard, supplementary procedures can be added to the current method used for ranking of the transport infrastructure investments. For an investment measure identified as opportune, the proposed method aim to minimize the total social cost.

Sea ports are important nodes in the supply chain, joining two high capacity transport modes: rail and maritime transport. The huge cargo flows transiting port requires high capacity construction and installation such as berths, large capacity cranes, respectively shunting yards. However, the port shunting yards specificity raises several problems such as: limited access since these are terminus stations for rail network, the in-output of large transit flows of cargo relatively to the scarcity of the departure/arrival of a ship, as well as limited land availability for implementing solutions to serve these flows. It is necessary to identify technological solutions that lead to an answer to these problems. The paper proposed a simulation model developed with ARENA computer simulation software suitable for shunting yards which serve sea ports with access to the rail network. Are investigates the principal aspects of shunting yards and adequate measures to increase their transit capacity. The operation capacity for shunting yards subsystem is assessed taking in consideration the required operating standards and the measure of performance (e.g. waiting time for freight wagons, number of railway line in station, storage area, etc.) of the railway station are computed. The conclusion and results, drawn from simulation, help transports and logistics specialists to test the proposals for improving the port management.

The design and operation of transportation systems, as with any large complex technical system, are marked by indetermination—risks and uncertainties (scientific/methodologic and/or socio-economic). This paper analyzes the occurrence and consequences of uncertainties, defined as completely unknown random events (“unknown unknowns”), on transportation system performances. Interest in the topic is justified by the considerable value and long life of transportation system components. In order to reduce the effects of uncertainties, a holistic approach to all technical infrastructures in society, regardless of the flow category (material, energy, information), is necessary. Technological progress and changes in territorial activity systems historically confirm the dynamism of the competition and complementarity relations between civil and industrial infrastructures and transport infrastructures, as well as among different modal transport/traffic infrastructures. Declining discount rates are applied to compensate for the effects of uncertainties on investment project opportunities on long time horizons. There is no unanimous agreement on the discount rate values. Unforeseen exogenous events are considered differentiated/non-systemic or undifferentiated/systemic uncertainties. They can have significant consequences on the performance of a transport system, including a change in the transport market share. Therefore, an adaptive policy is required to reduce the methodological/scientific and socio-economic uncertainties that affect the design and operation of any transportation system.