Edited by Moshe Guvoni and Torben Holvad
The quarterly publication Built Environment is primarily written for urban and regional planning practitioners and students, addressing a different theme each quarter. Volume 35 Issue 1 is devoted to a review of developments in the European rail sector.
A range of contributed features attempts to address a question posed by the guest editors: ‘is the second railway age still here or yet to begin ’ Topics include a review of trends in European railways over the past two decades, a look at railway policy reforms and the impact of privatisation and competitive tendering. One chapter examines rail’s perceived environmental advantages, whilst others look at the role of high speed trains, freight liberalisation, and station redevelopment, as well as the customer-oriented approach to providing a door-to-door rail journey.
Written from an external perspective, the nine papers provide an interesting perspective on European railway reform, assembling considerable detail from academic and political sources. Concluding that rail does have an increasing role to play in meeting the sustainability agenda, the editors emphasise that ‘for a true second railway age to take place, we need to adopt a multi-faceted approach that encompasses a range of different policy instruments and brings on board all the relevant stakeholders’.
ISSN 0263-7960
£30·00 from Alexandrine Press, 1 The Farthings, Marcham, OX13 6QD, UK.
