Visions on high-speed trains: a methodological analysis

Susana Martins Moretto, António Moniz and Douglas Robinson ()
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Douglas Robinson: Teqnode, Paris, France

No 05/2015, IET Working Papers Series from Universidade Nova de Lisboa, IET/CICS.NOVA-Interdisciplinary Centre on Social Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology

Abstract: Future Oriented Technology Analysis (FTA) has been visible in railway planning since 2001. Over a dozen reports have been produced in the past thirteen years, the majority being descriptive endogenous technocentric visions. They have played a role in the revitalization of the sector, predominantly relating to collective alignments and interdependencies in choice and form of the technological path the various stakeholders’ follow to achieve policy goals. A striking example is the case of ERRAC visions, where strategic agendas and roadmaps greatly impacted the high-speed train technology transition from the second to the third generation of vehicles. However, today’s socio-economic events have revealed the limitations of previously applied FTA fall short for railways. In particular, there is an inability to bridge technocentric visions with the societal challenges that are becoming increasingly prominent on the policy agenda. To fill this FTA-need in railways it is here proposed a role for constructive technology assessment as bridging function towards achieving success in the transition to a next generation of high-speed trains. The findings here presented result from the analysis of reports and interviews with their commissioning institutions and drafters.

Keywords: future oriented technology analysis; constructive technology assessment; technology transitions; s-curve; multi-level alignments; high-speed trains (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O31 O38 R42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27 pages
Date: 2015-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ino, nep-reg and nep-tre
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ieu:wpaper:65

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