The need for defining a basic service level of a transport system is necessitated by the structural changes at the regional level and in the society in general (e.g. focused migration to a few cities, changes in industry and commerce). These trends result in a weakening of the service level of transport infrastructure, in particular in areas with a decreasing population. Since in regions with a decreasing population transport infrastructure cannot be maintained on the basis of demand criteria, the need for a definition of a basic service level has arisen. The basic level should indicate what service level is at least to be attained regardless of traffic demand levels. Definition of basic service level is closely connected to regional equity, and to the relation between infrastructure qualities and regional development. At the most generic level the basic service level of infrastructure means a level of accessibility, which enables the achievement of a certain welfare level, while avoiding both unreasonable cost burdens for the infrastructure owners and unreasonable amounts of external costs. Eventually the specification of the basic service level is a political choice. As preparation for this choice it needs - among others - to be clarified what kind of needs are involved in the specification of basic service level and what is the users' and tax payers' willingness to pay for a certain service level, while taking account of interaction effects with other public service levels. Evaluations should also take account of the quality of transport system, including substituting and complementing functions of sub-systems, as well as the interaction with adjacent sectors and aspects, such as cost and quality of living and availability of local services. Therefore the basic service level can differ across regions and sub-systems. In addition the basic service level may be influenced by restricting traffic volumes. In the present transport system the most serious deficiencies are located in the lower road network and in private roads in rural regions with decreasing population. The financing of the maintenance of these roads has decreased substantially and hence the maintenance has become patchy while local capabilities for maintenance work vanish. To solve these problems a new financing approach and organisation of maintenance is called for. For the rail network the aged superstructure and lack of capacity are key problems. This report is available at http://www.mintc.fi
