A new railway tunnel under Brussels? Assessing political feasibility and desirability with competence-based multi criteria analysis

The article describes how COMCA was applied in a study with the aim to assess solutions for the main bottleneck of the Belgian railway network. It was found that, in terms of desirability among stakeholders, certain little-studied alternatives potentially surpass the alternatives which for many years were regarded as the most plausible options by the key players. Based on experiences during the study, the article discusses various parameters for finding the equilibrium between methodical precision and applicability in a real-world decision-making context.