ABSTRACT
Decision-making in the field of major infrastructure transport projects is complex in our contemporary occidental societies. This statement, shared by analysts, decision-makers and other experts, is based on the recurrent conflicts that those processes inevitably produce. As a consequence, every actor participates in the decision-making process with his own view of the problem to be solved and how this should be done. The complexity of decision-making is characterised by the expression of a new rationale and by the appeal for accountability for the consequences of public actions, particularly with regard to environmental protection. Circularity of public action means that several actors set together both the problem to be solved and the method to solve it, the categories of actors who act collectively determining, in turn, the problem and its solution. The Lyon-Turin territorialisation process resulted in a complication of the project that would serve jointly international, national and local interests, as well as freight and passenger services.
