The urban rail development handbook

The World Bank Group has extensive experience supporting urban transport policies and planning, as well as financing project implementation in metropolitan regions around the world. This experience includes rapid transit projects, such as urban rail and BRT.2 The World Bank Group is therefore positioned to provide a unique, mode-agnostic, independent, and honest perspective on what elements are needed to determine the right modal solution for a given city (which may or may not include urban rail). If a city decides that urban rail is the most appropriate mode for satisfying the mobility and accessibility needs of a given corridor, then the World Bank Group can help the city to maximize the many long-term benefits of such a project. Urban rail projects may influence generations of city dwellers and have a large opportunity cost in terms of human and budgetary resources. As the number, variety, and complexity of urban rail projects are on the rise, it is relevant to understand how to approach the development of these projects to attain the greatest return on investment possible from social, environmental, and economic perspectives. Urban rail projects have the potential to reduce poverty and contribute to shared prosperity, but, if poorly planned or implemented, they could be regressive and have negative impacts. This Urban Rail Development Handbook shares lessons learned from globally selected past and ongoing projects (within and beyond the World Bank Group portfolio) and provides policy makers with practical recommendations to improve implementation in every step of the project development process and to obtain the most value from urban rail investments throughout their life.