responsible for construction, maintenance and management
of the rail infrastructure. For their part, the
municipalities were responsible for creating the master
plan. They received subsidies, set up partnerships with
the private sector and signed implementation agreements
with the central government. In addition they
were responsible for managing the interaction with a
vast array of local interests, from businesses to citizens.
Other countries show similar institutional challenges
(Bertolini & Spit, 1998). Adding to the complexity,
large projects like HSR station development involve
huge public and private sector risks (Ministry of
Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment, 2000,
cited in Priemus, 2006). These include uncertainty as to
costs and time needed for developing plans and land
resources; potential problems with construction of the
actual buildings; uncertainty on future market demand;
and potential legal complications and the risk of
political changes. Usually, special project-oriented
modes of governance, with close ties between public
and private actors associated with spatial planning, have
been considered a worthwhile approach (Moulaert,
Rodrı´guez, & Swyngedouw, 2003). However the
complexity of development of station areas presents a
stern challenge. Institutional innovation, while not a
main area of concern of this paper, thus seems
exceedingly important.