Constructing a transport hGIS: Does infrastructure follow infrastructure?

The purpose of this contribution is to present the advancement in the construction of a historical geographic information system (hGIS) on Western Europe’s transport system from 1500 to 2000, as introduced at the T2M conference last year. Emphasise is laid on two points: First, the need for special techniques in the processing of scanned paper transport maps drawn in black-and-white, which are the bulk of historical maps. Second, despite the many real and utopian revolutions in transport history, it is claimed that the spatial position of transport infrastructure over centuries has remained very constant. Using the hGIS this claim can be addressed