The current national plan for investments in the Swedish transport system represents a new, multimodal approach to transport planning, expected to facilitate cross-sectoral coherence. However, the ways the plan promotes certain spatial structures of Sweden are only vaguely touched upon in the political guidelines for the plan. Thus, interpreting the spatial aspects of national transport policy is a core task for the planning officials in the transport planning agencies. This raises the question of how 'the spatial' is conceptualized by the planners involved.

The aim of this paper is to explore the spatial perspectives embedded in the national transport planning process at different levels. The work of Henri Lefebvre provides an important theoretical framework for the analysis. While the transport policy supposed to guide the actual planning process to a large extent is formulated in non-spatial terms as general objectives, and the preconditions for planning are expressed as representations of space, the projects subjected to prioritization are largely developed from regional planning processes and subjected to what Lefebvre has labelled trial-by-space. The planning process is thus based on different conceptualizations of space.

The study concludes with a discussion about the potential role of a more explicit spatial perspective in Swedish transport policy. It also raises questions of how the coordination between national and regional/urban planning can be strengthened.

To highlight the ways in which spatial perspectives appear in the different stages of national transport planning, the study is based on an analysis of the recently adopted Swedish national plan for infrastructure investments, as well as a case study of a national transport project in a regional context. The empirical material consists primarily of core documents and plans as well as interviews with planners involved in the process of formulating the national plan proposal.

Keywords: National transport planning, spatial perspectives, political, prioritizing investments