Capitalizing on spatiality in European transport corridors

After half a century of corridor development in Europe, the corridor concept is well-established
in the academic discourse on transportation. Transport corridors have also been common practice
in European transport policy since the creation of a borderless Europe in the 1990s. What is largely
lacking in present-day research on European transport corridors is a consideration of a sectortranscendent
and comprehensive spatial approach. We argue that adopting such an approach is
beneficial to a valued analysis of European transport corridors, especially in the light of EU
cohesion policy, agglomeration effects and place-based development. Also, negative external
effects of persisting bottlenecks on welfare and quality of life in transport corridors should be
better assessed and contextualised. This paper therefore suggests that policy can and should
capitalise more on spatiality in corridors.