Public transport investment and local regeneration: A comparison of London’s Jubilee Line Extension and the Madrid Metrosur

Despite a long-standing tradition within transport studies research, capturing and assessing the long-term impacts of major transport investment projects is still problematic. This is partly due to the relative paucity of empirical data, as well as the considerable research effort involved in undertaking appropriate data collection for detailed longitudinal evaluations. Past studies suggest that economic impacts can vary significantly depending on the type of interventions, the locations and geographical areas served, pre-existing market conditions and other policy and planning factors. However, another issue for evaluation is the extent to which the different studies that are available are comparable in terms of their methodologies, which makes the synthesis of research findings across different case studies extremely difficult. Whilst we are not able to overcome all of these methodological issues in the context of this paper, our main objective is to construct a typology of the ‘success’ factors for securing economic uplift from such projects. The main aim of our research and this paper is to make key gaps in the evidence-base concerning the economic and development impacts of major transport infrastructure impact investments more transparent. This will allow policymakers and other investors to be better informed about the likely success of these investments for the regeneration of local areas under different pre-existing conditions. It also helps to identify where there are current gaps in the knowledge base and or where a lack of adequate data prevents the potential to identify economic uplifts and regeneration outcomes. An important finding of the research is that in the case of the Jubilee Line Extension and the Madrid Metrosur positive economic benefits occurred most frequently around the stations where there were already enforceable land use plans and complementary policies in place to increase urban densities and encourage mixed land uses, alongside restricted car and good walking access to stations.