Optimizing station location and fleet composition for a high-speed rail line

This paper proposes a new strategic planning model for high-speed rail ventures. It is a mixed-integer optimization model that applies to a given line and focuses on two key strategic decisions: station location and fleet composition. Our purpose is to improve on previous station location models by including fleet composition decisions. In the new model, we additionally take into account in an approximate fashion the interrelationships between strategic and subsequent tactical decisions, regarding line planning, train scheduling and fleet assignment issues. The usefulness of the model is demonstrated for a case study involving a planned Lisbon-Oporto high-speed rail line.     

Corridors,hybrids and networks: three global development strategies for high speed rail

After 50 years of experience with high-speed rail (HSR) development in Asia and Europe, there are important lessons that can be derived to inform future efforts to introduce HSR. This paper identifies and explores three strategic models of HSR development: (1) exclusive corridors (e.g., Japan), (2) hybrid networks—both national (e.g., France and Germany) and international (e.g., European Union), and (3) comprehensive national networks (e.g., China and Spain). Evaluations of these models yield outcomes that range from generally positive assessments of the corridor and national hybrid models to more concerns and uncertainties about the international hybrid and comprehensive national network models. When applying these lessons to the United States, contextual differences can make direct applications problematic. At the same time, though, certain elements of these three models that have been proven to be successful elsewhere may be adaptable to the U.S. and other newcomers to HSR development.     

Attracting travellers to the high-speed train: a methodology for comparing potential demand between stations

The High-Speed Railways (HSR) which are currently operative in 12 countries throughout the world include a wide range of stations with a highly varied capacity to attract travellers. Although there are various reasons for these differences, we have focused on the ones that can be quantified for further comparison. The main purpose of this study was twofold. First of all, we sought to identify stations with a low capacity to attract travellers and to explain the reasons for their concentration in certain countries rather than others. Secondly, we looked for a simple, but widely acceptable, method with which to calculate the capacity to attract users to HSR stations. This would help to establish a better way of allocating financial resources for public investment. This approach enabled us to identify those stations that had little or no potential at all and which had been established for essentially political reasons in countries where the concept of territorial cohesion had been applied in an inappropriate way. This led us to a number of observations relating to the railway policies undertaken in the countries studied and to underline the need for greater international coordination in areas like Europe and for better justified HSR policies. The calculations presented in this article use data relating to the urban populations which live in the vicinity of the world’s HSR stations, the distance from each of these stations to the nearest urban centres and the level of the corresponding regional GDP. All of this information has been used to build a GIS to facilitate analysis and pave the way towards a general comparative approach in which stations would be classified according to their capacity to attract travellers. Such an approach could also be used in areas in which lines are currently under construction and/or where future projects – such as the TEN-T in Europe – have already been approved but not yet executed. Our approach will make it easier to obtain data to show the potential success of, and need for, a HSR connexion as a preliminary step within the decision making process. This constitutes a significant contribution to the debate about the need to assess political decisions concerning HSR investments. It also highlights the need to encourage improved intermodality around railway stations and particularly around those located in non-metropolitan areas.     

中国高铁客站的创新与实践

高速铁路客站,既是高速铁路的重要组成部分,也是国家综合交通体系的重要节点和带动城市发展不可或缺的重要因子。伴随着我国高速铁路的快速发展．铁路客站的建设迎来了难得的发展机遇。历经6年多的探索与实践,我国高速铁路客站在建设理念、关键技术、工程管理等方面取得了重要进展。介绍中国铁路客站的规划与进展,剖析中国高铁客站建设存在的挑战,简述中国高铁客站的建设目标和实施路径,总结中国高铁客站取得的显著成效。     

Air and high-speed rail transport integration on profits and welfare: Effects of air-rail connecting time

Air-rail integration has become a popular idea to relieve airport congestion and environmental impact of transport industry, especially amid the fast expansion of high-speed rail network around the world. This study examines the circumstances under which air-rail integration can be better justified, by focusing on the effects of reducing air-rail connecting time on transport operators' profits, consumer surplus, and social welfare. We show that while consumers always benefit from less air-rail connecting time (an integrated hub with seamless transfer between air and rail services is always preferred by passengers), operators of the two modes, air transport and high-speed rail, won't have an incentive to integrate unless the cost of integration is sufficiently low. Nonetheless, reducing air-rail connecting time enhances total surplus when the hub airport suffers from a certain degree of capacity constraint and the cost of air-rail integration is not too high.     

Impact of high-speed rail on market concentration and Lerner index in China's airline market

China has become the second largest air transport market in the world since 2005. Its total length of high-speed rail (HSR) tracks in operation has been greater than that of all other countries combined since 2012. HSR poses a significant challenge to the Chinese airline industry, especially on major airline routes. The impacts of HSR on two market-competition measures, namely, the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index (HHI) and the Lerner index, are examined in this study. In general, the entry of HSR had the effect of reducing market power measured by both the unweighted and weighted Lerner indexes. However, the Lerner index and HHI of the routes with parallel HSR services remained consistently higher than those of the routes without parallel HSR services.     

The Channel Tunnel: transport patterns and regional impacts

Since its opening in 1994 the Channel Tunnel has become a key element in the transport infrastructure linking Britain and continental Europe. But, as well as forming part of the Trans-European Rail Network, the Channel Tunnel was also seen as a potential stimulus to trans-frontier collaboration and as a possible catalyst for regional economic development. The aim of the paper is to evaluate the regional impacts of the Tunnel within the Anglo-French frontier zone on both sides of the English Channel. Although millions of passengers travel through the Tunnel every year, numbers have failed to reach the forecast levels and the overall benefits are fewer than had been anticipated. The English Channel still represents a psychological barrier (partly due to language differences) and the frontier zone has failed to develop as an integrated labour market. Moreover, the findings suggest that the Channel Tunnel has only had a limited impact on the spatial economy of the trans-frontier zone in Kent and Nord-Pas-de-Calais. While Ashford has undoubtedly gained from its high-speed rail connection, the greatest impacts have occurred in metropolitan regions further from the Tunnel, including Lille and East London.     

Impact of airports on regional accessibility and social development

This study compares the impact that two airports in Norway have on regional accessibility and social development. One of the airports is a small-sized airport that serves a relatively remote region and has direct air services to other regions in Norway but not to the capital city of Oslo or to destinations abroad. The other is a medium-sized airport that serves a relatively accessible region and has direct air services to the capital city of Oslo and to a number of destinations in Norway and abroad. The study compares opinions of residents that live in the respective regions and is based on the findings of a postal survey that was completed by over 2000 residents. The Independent Samples t-test is used to investigate the significance of any differences in opinion. Significant differences were found to reflect the size and scope of services available at the airports and specific characteristics of the regions that they serve. Residents in the more remote region have a significantly higher frequency of travel by air to destinations in Norway but a significantly lower frequency of travel by air to destinations abroad. Trip frequency for holidays is significantly higher in the region that has an airport with direct international air services while trip frequency to access health services is significantly higher in the region that has limited local health services. The airport is significantly more important for resident location and retention in the remoter region.     

D篇：京津城际铁路：促进都市圈形成和发展的平台与载体

从京津城际铁路促进京津冀都市圈双核战略发展模式的实施,扩大京津通道运输能力和满足高端客流需求等方面,阐述了京津城际铁路在京津冀都市圈形成与发展中的重要作用。     

Evaluating accessibility impacts of the proposed America 2050 high-speed rail corridor for the Appalachian Region

Transportation improvements are often considered to be precursors of economic growth. This paper examines industry-specific ‘attractiveness’ due to changes in the transportation network for 23 counties in the Appalachian Region. The network improvements result from new highway construction and the proposed America 2050 High-Speed Rail (HSR) plan for the Piedmont Atlantic Megaregion. The impacted counties that are proximate to five HSR stations (Birmingham, Atlanta, Greenville, Charlotte, and Greensboro) are studied for potential accessibility changes between the years 2002 to 2035. The impacts are examined with respect to six key industry sectors found around the proposed HSR stations: manufacturing; retail; construction; mining, quarrying, oil and gas extraction; health-care services; and all other remaining industries combined. The analysis shows that, for transportation improvements with highways only (and no HSR), a decrease in accessibility for all the impacted counties occurs for the six industry sectors examined in the future year of 2035. The HSR speed of 150 miles per hour is found to be adequate enough to cause positive changes in potential accessibility of the directly impacted counties containing the Birmingham and Greenville HSR stations. With combined transportation network improvements from both highway construction and the new 150 mph HSR line, counties around the Atlanta and Greensboro HSR stations would see accessibility increases in 2035 compared to 2002 with respect to five industry sectors: manufacturing; retail; construction; health-care services; and all other remaining industries combined. However, accessibility changes with respect to mining, quarrying, oil and gas extraction would be positive specifically only for the indirectly impacted counties around the Atlanta HSR station and the county containing the Greenville HSR station. This clearly shows differences in the spatial distribution of attractiveness for different industry sectors across the impacted counties along the HSR corridor. Thus, this exploratory analysis could serve as an aid to proactive public policy decision-making for large-scale transportation network improvements, such as the HSR, in understanding and improving economic activities for different industry mixes across other regions of the United States.     

Urban rail systems investments: an analysis of the impacts on property values and residents’ location

Light rail, metro and other urban rail transit systems can play a significant role in improving the attractiveness and quality of urban public transport. They can influence the attractiveness of locations near the stations and improve accessibility for these locations. Furthermore urban rail can improve a location’s attractiveness by its image effect: it makes a station appear modern and dynamic, and thus raises the status of this location.This paper summarises findings on the land-use and economic impacts of the urban rail system of the city of Naples over time and space. It examines changes in residential and non-residential (offices and retail) property prices around the newly built stations between 2001 and 2008 as well as the changes in the number of residents for the same station catchment areas. Ad hoc station control areas have been specified in order to compare the results of these changes. Results show that values in station control areas are lower than those of those of the stations catchment areas.     

New regional aviation policy in India: Early indicators and lessons learnt

In this article, we study the new regional aviation policy of India along with data collected on the performance of the scheme since its introduction in 2016. The scheme has multiple objectives. First, it wants to increase footprints of civil aviation to unserved and underserved airports of India. Second, it intends to make flying more affordable. It comes out, the aviation market in the country has expanded due to the addition of new routes under the scheme but data indicates that there is a regional imbalance in the performance of the scheme. Moreover, there are still questions on the long term sustainability of many routes and finding a solution for neglect of some priority regions. We have identified economic and commercial challenges that need to be addressed for the program to achieve its goals. The insights gathered during the study can be generalized and policy makers and managers of remote area air-connectivity schemes of different countries should find them useful.     

The impacts of high-speed rail extensions on accessibility and spatial equity changes in South Korea from 2004 to 2018

The construction of South Korean High-Speed Rail (HSR) or Korea Train eXpress (KTX) has been evolving in phases since its first operation in 2004. This development raises concerns whether the benefits from the extended HSR network would again be limited to the initial HSR corridors and will deepen the inequalities in accessibility with the rising issue of uneven regional development of the country. This paper measures the accessibility of each stage of HSR network extension and evaluates its spatial distribution, variation, and changes using weighted averaged travel time and potential accessibility indicators. The results of this study find different accessibility impacts from each stage of HSR extension. Although travel-time reduction and increased attractions have been widened in more cities by each HSR extension, the spatial equity is degenerated by the extension in 2010/2011 as the improvement of accessibility has been concentrated in cities along the primary HSR corridor near the already-advantageous Seoul capital area. In contrast, the future HSR extension in 2018 will enhance equitable accessibility to the isolated regions such as the northeast and the southwest regions of the country. However, the relative degree of accessibility improvement will not be large enough for increasing the spatial equity of accessibility without more extended HSR networks between provinces.     

High-speed rail and office location choices. A stated choice experiment for the Netherlands

High-speed rail is seen as a factor contributing to the attractiveness of a location for economic activities. This paper focuses on how the level-of-service characteristics of railway stations, and in particular the presence of high-speed train services, influence the attractiveness of locations for specific types of offices. The results are presented for a stated choice experiment for location choices of offices in the Netherlands. It is concluded that the availability of high-speed train services contributes to the attractiveness of a location for offices. For internationally-oriented offices the areas around stations with international high-speed train services are attractive because of their good international accessibility. We also found an indication that high-speed train services can raise the status of an office site. In the Netherlands, the domestic high-speed train services are less relevant for location choices, because of the small domestic distances. Besides high-speed train services, other location characteristics that determine how well a site is connected to the railway network are also found to be important for location choices. Thereby differences between offices occur, which can partly be explained by the number of trips to/from an office.     

高速铁路与转变经济发展方式

将经济发展理论与中国高速铁路发展实践紧密结合,论述高速铁路发展在推动中国经济结构调整、带动产业结构升级、促进生态文明建设与和谐社会建设方面的重要作用。认为高速铁路事业的蓬勃发展,是中国转变经济发展方式、建设社会主义和谐社会的重要推动力量。     

Spillover effects of the development constraints in London Heathrow Airport

In this article we assess the growth impact of London Heathrow’s development constraints on other airports in the UK. To test the relationship we use a two-stage methodology yielding an estimate of a congestion spillover effect. Our data are passenger traffic from 1990 to 2012 containing both intercontinental and European air traffic. For intercontinental air traffic, our results show high congestion spillover effect between Heathrow and Gatwick airports, and significant but lesser effect to Stansted airport. We also find significant congestion spillover effects from Heathrow to the spatially more distant Manchester and Birmingham airports, showing the extensive spatial impact of Heathrow’s development constraints. For European air traffic, controlling for low-cost air carrier growth, only two airports show significant congestion spillover effects: Gatwick and London City Airports. Illustrating that low-cost carriers do not operate from Heathrow, so its limitations cannot affect the predominant low-cost air traffic in other airports. The novel methodology we present in this paper can be applied to congestion research in general to assess regional and modal spills within networks.     

C篇：京津城际铁路对京津地区经济社会发展的作用

京津城际铁路是我国第一条连接两个城市的高速铁路,它对加速北京和天津的经济社会发展、推进北京与天津的同城化和一体化进程、提升京津冀乃至环渤海地区的区域经济地位都具有重要作用。运营一年的实践表明这些作用十分明显。     

Traveler satisfaction in rapid rail systems: The case of Istanbul metro

Multifaceted characteristics of urban travel have an impact on the passengers' overall satisfaction with the transport system. In this study, we investigate the interrelationships among traveler satisfaction, travel and traveler characteristics, and service performance in a multimodal network that comprises of a trunk line and its feeder lines. We analyze the factors influencing the choices of access to rail transit stations and the satisfaction of transit travelers with the rapid rail transit systems. We quantitatively study these relationships and demonstrate the complexity of evaluating transit service performance. Since the interrelationships among variables affecting this system are mainly stochastic, we analyze the satisfaction with transit system problem using a Bayesian Belief Network (BBN), which helps capture the causality among variables with inherent uncertainty. Using the case of Istanbul, we employ the BBN as a decision support tool for policy-makers to analyze the rapid rail transit services and determine policies for improving the quality and the level of service to increase the satisfaction with transit system. In the case study, satisfaction with accessibility and access mode variables are found to be more effective variables than total travel time for travel time satisfaction, confirming the significant role of access in multimodal travels.     

Urbanization impacts on regional tourism development: a case study in China

This paper studies the urbanization impacts on tourism development in four regions Guangdong province, using time-series data of Guangdong province in China in 1996–2011. Urbanization has been operationalized by population, economic, geographical landscape and social cultural dimensions. This study suggests that urbanization, though in general increases tourism development, does not affect different regions in Guangdong uniformly. Tourism development in different regions will receive different impacts from urbanization. Therefore, policy-makers, while promoting tourism development, should be aware of the different levels of impact of urbanization towards tourism development.     

Market effects of regional high-speed trains on the Svealand line

When the Svealand line in Sweden opened in 1997, it replaced an older railway line between Eskilstuna and Stockholm (a distance of 115 km). Service on the Svealand line is operated with regional high-speed trains. In a case study of the effects of regional high-speed train services, changes in knowledge, valuations and travel behaviour have been analysed. The Svealand line has sparked an increase in regional rail travel of up to seven times compared to the old railway between Eskilstuna and Stockholm. Additionally, the market share has risen from 6% to 30%. Travelling times are valued highly and motorists, particularly, place great value on the high-speed train mode of transport.A general conclusion is that regional high-speed train services have had a major impact on the travel market and on travel behaviour. The improved accessibility to Stockholm, in particular, is especially noticeable among residents living close to the railway stations.