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This report provides a diagnostic and a set of recommendations for the coordination of infrastructure investments in three main sectors in Romania: roads; water and wastewater; and social infrastructure (education, health, culture, and sports). The proposals formulated are targeted primarily at the main client of this work, the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Administration (MRDPA) and specifically at the Directorate General for Regional Development and Infrastructure (DG RDI), which manages the most important state-budget-funded program for local infrastructure investments – the National Local Development Program (PNDL). Other key stakeholders include the Center of Government (CoG), the Ministry of Public Finances, the Ministry of European Funds, other central authorities in charge of EU and/or state-funded investment programs, Regional Development Agencies, and county and local councils. While customized for the PNDL, the recommendations that follow can be replicated across all state-budget-funded investment programs. This report presents multiple instruments for promoting coordination: dedicated platforms, harmonization of investment programs (design, financing criteria, producers), and knowledge sharing of good practices at the local level.

The introduction of urban rail transit and high performance/quality/capacity bus transit systems throughout the world has dramatically improved the mobility of residents of cities in which they operate. The objectives of this work are: to provide a technical resource for transit planners and designers in developing cities in their public transport capacity and performance analysis work irrespective of mode. This report recommends methods of achieving practical transit capacity during normally encountered operating conditions. Where capacity is influenced by a measure of dispersion of some characteristic such as stop dwell time or vehicle headway, this is also noted. The purpose of measuring capacity is not just to provide a measure of system capability to transport passengers but also to provide some insight into the effect of service and physical design on customer service quality. When the demand for a service exceeds its schedule design capacity, service quality deteriorates either due to overcrowding on vehicles or at station platforms or diminished ability of customers to board the next arriving transport vehicle since it is already fully loaded, increased dwell times and hence decrease revenue speeds. The importance of service quality in transit capacity analysis cannot be overstated. Transit operators should be mindful that the urban transportation marketplace is more competitive. While it might be technically possible to design a service using a loading standard of 7 or 8 passengers per square meter, a number of customers will find that level intolerable and will seek alternate means of travel including walking (in the case of short distance trips), riding with someone else, riding taxis or purchasing a motorcycle or car. Accordingly, such loading standards should be thought of as interim measures until higher capacity at lower crowding can be achieved.

IWT is more energy efficient that modes like road or rail. The bigger capacity of IWT units means that the sector is able to ship more tons per kilometer per unit of fuel than what is possible with other modes. This benefits the climate and makes the sector relatively cost-efficient. Even so, few countries fully exploit the potential benefits of IWT and in many countries the share of road transport is increasing at the cost of IWT. There are various possible reasons for this trend. Among the main reasons given by shippers to avoid IWT are advantages of road transport such as speed of delivery and flexibility, limitations imposed by IWT infrastructure (water levels, bridge clearances, port access) and underdeveloped intermodal facilities (transshipment from IWT to truck for pre- and end-haulage). For shippers these arguments are more important than the potential reduction of transport costs and CO2 emissions. Chapter two compares the global energy-efficiency of IWT with that of other transport modes. It also discusses the reasons for differences between modes and the implications of each for CO2 emissions. Chapter three deal with the varying energy-performance of IWT vessels in various regions in the world. Chapter four explores several energy efficiency benchmarking methods. The conclusions of part A are presented in chapter five.