National transportation infrastructure

The link between state territoriality and transport infrastructure has long been recognised (see, for example, Mann 1984; Brenner 1999). Whilst much of this work (see, for example, Taylor 1994) has a very strong historical focus, it does inform contemporary debates on the nature and structure of territorial infrastructuring strategies that form the focus of the work within this volume. In examining the role of transport infrastructure within contemporary territorial strategy, it is necessary not just to examine issues of the notion of quality, quantity and universality in such systems and how they shape territoriality but also to assess the main adaptive tensions within such systems. Whilst the development of transport infrastructure systems inevitably varies markedly between states, there are, nonetheless, generic patterns and trends that are identifiable. This chapter will focus on those aspects that best inform territorial strategy. Initially the chapter will seek to identify the role of the National Transportation Infrastructure (NTI) within territoriality, addressing its core facets and features (notably quality, quantity and universality) before moving on to briefly examine the adaptive tensions within the NTI and the resultant infrastructure financing gap across many NTIs. Expressed in terms of territoriality, the NTI is the multi (sometimes inter)-modal hierarchical system means of moving people, commodities and partially and semi-completed products around and between territories (for a review see Rodrigue et al. 2016). Looking beyond these economic drivers, it is also evident that the NTI is important for the state to move its material around a territory