Table 1 Short description of national planning of transport infrastructures

Planning infrastructures on a national level is translated by the production of a master plan and a planning doctrine. The master plan provides a diagnostic of the network’s current situation (traffic fluidity, safety level, maintenance level, increasing mobility, accessibility of the territory, continuity of the service during the winter). It specifies the environmental challenges as well as the economic and financial constraints linked to the management and development of the networks. It establishes transport policy objectives, lists projects and establishes an order of priority for their completion (based on a socio-economic evaluation or a multi-criteria analysis) but without specifying completion times.

The 2011 SNIT (Schéma National des Infrastructures de Transport-National Master Plan for Transport Infrastructures) was the first multimodal scheme. The 2013 Mobilité 21 [6] report presented a doctrine that was different from the one provided by the 2011 National Master Plan for Transport Infrastructures. Like the 2011 Master Plan, it was oriented towards ecological and energy transition, but it reduced investments into new projects (Figs. 1 and 2).