Access and egress times to high-speed rail stations: a spatiotemporal accessibility analysis

Accessibility of high-speed rail (HSR) stations and HSR–air competition: Evidence from China

Passenger satisfaction is critical to ridership growth of high speed rail (HSR). Each HSR trip includes at least four segments: access to HSR stations, waiting, line-haul, and egress from HSR stations. Satisfaction with any segment influences the HSR passenger experience. Previous studies often focus on passenger satisfaction with the line-haul segment, but overlook the effects of all four segments on overall HSR satisfaction, especially access and egress. Using a path analysis on the data collected from the Shanghai-Nanjing HSR corridor in 2016, this study explores the influence of access and egress segments on overall HSR satisfaction and the correlates of satisfaction with HSR access and egress segments. We find that HSR line-haul satisfaction dominates overall HSR satisfaction; HSR access and egress satisfaction together have an equivalent effect. Travel time and route familiarity are important to both access and egress satisfaction. Mode choice affects satisfaction with HSR egress, with egress by car carrying the largest utility of egress satisfaction, followed by rail transit, taxi, and then bus. Thus, to improve HSR experience, traveler information service and the integration of HSR with urban transportation system are critical.

Performance Evaluation of Multimodal Transportation Systems

The objective of this study was to quantify multimodal connectivity of high speed rail (HSR) stations and its impact on ridership in four countries where HSR has been established. Data were collected from HSR systems of France, Spain, Japan and China. Various characteristics of the connecting modes were observed and compared. The relationship between ridership and the characteristics of multimodal connectivity was identified using regression models developed in this study. Multimodal connectivity at HSR stations in various countries presents a variety of profiles. For example, HSR stations in China connect with more bus lines than those in other countries, there are more bus stops/terminals provided in France, and transfer times in Japan and China are significantly longer than those in France and Spain. The connectivity variables influence ridership in various ways. On the whole, bus, subway, and regional railroad service influence ridership significantly. For instance, the more bus services connected to the station, the higher the ridership. Subway, light rail, and traditional rail are modes of high-capacity transportation and their connection to HSR stations always implies high ridership for high-speed rail. Also, the more bus and subway stops, and the more bicycle parking and taxi stands, the higher the ridership. Transfer time also has a significant influence. These findings have important implications for the proposed California and Nevada HSR stations. The unique needs of visitors to Las Vegas and their implications for HSR design also are discussed.

Classification and determinants of high-speed rail stations using multi-source data: A case study in Jiangsu Province, China

Car drivers’ perceptions of the quality of alternative travel modes have been identified as a barrier for including these alternatives in their choice sets. The present study investigated the accuracy of car drivers’ perceptions of public transport (PT) travel time and the potential effect of these perceptions on choice sets. A sample of car drivers was intercepted on the main corridors to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, using video recognition of license plates, and was sent a questionnaire asking (among other questions) whether they could have made the specific trip by PT and their estimate of the door-to-door travel time by PT. Objective travel times were obtained from route-planning software. 21,335 questionnaires (31\\%) were returned. About 10 percent did not report PT travel time for their car trip, largely car drivers who did not perceive PT as an alternative. The mean ratio of perceived travel time by PT to reported travel time by car was 1 : 2.3. About half the difference was due to distorted perceptions, and the ratio reported depended strongly on their PT use. Analysis of associations between choice set and characteristics of traveler and trip showed that if perceived PT travel times were more accurate a substantial number of car drivers would include PT in their choice set. Actual changes in behavior might be much smaller.

High Speed Rail (HSR) was conceived as an alternative to air transport to interconnect big cities and metropolises from 400 to 600 km distances. Recently these HSR lines are starting to have stations in traditional cities or new urban developments within the limits of each metropolis (between 20 and 100 km from the center). The existence of these HSR stations in the periphery of metropolises is opening up two new metropolitan transportation behavior possibilities. Firstly, the HSR used between central and peripheral metropolitan stations as a special new type of suburban metropolitan transport and secondly, peripheral HSR stations used to travel to/from other faraway places instead of using the central HSR stations. This paper describes this new type of HSR cities, lines, stations and services, and points out several cases in Spain, France, Sweden and Great Britain where this is taking place. Data from two survey campaigns just implemented on the HSR passengers between Madrid and Toledo, and Madrid and Guadalajara is used to describe and analyze their profile. The paper points out the possibilities of this new type of HSR to help the generation of metropolitan sub-centers and to extend the metropolitan influence further away, analyses the HSR traveling patterns and allows indications of the type of processes that are taking place.

Remote high-speed rail stations, urban land supply, and the emergence of new economic activities

Integrated interoperable rail systems facilitate high-speed rail (HSR) train movement on conventional intercity lines, and vice versa. Hence, for such rail systems, it is preferred that HSR stations are located at existing intercity rail stations. However, all existing intercity stations may not satisfy the ridership potential and inter-station spacing required for HSR operation. Providing more stations increases access to intermediate locations, boosting ridership, but also increases overall travel time. On the contrary, fewer stations and stops reduce overall ridership of the HSR. We propose a geographic information system-based interoperable HSR station location identification approach along existing intercity rail stations to identify suitable integrated interoperable HSR and intercity station locations. Avoiding environmentally sensitive land (such as wetlands, forests, etc.), and other requirements such as threshold inter-station distance and travel time between intended station locations and threshold population of the intended station region, are included as environmental, and corridor specific constraints, respectively. A heuristic approach is used to evaluate and obtain the candidate set of station locations that maximizes ridership and minimizes travel time, such that an integrated interoperable HSR and intercity corridor can be developed. The Mumbai–Ahmedabad conventional intercity corridor is used as a case study to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed model by identifying possible HSR station locations.

Exploring passengers’ consumption motivation can provide the basis for arranging commercial activities in high-speed rail (HSR) stations to generate more revenue for operations. This study uses a mixed multiple-attribute decision-making model for exploring the consumption motivation at HSR stations and complex influential relationships from the passengers’ perspective. The passenger traffic at five major HSR stations in Taiwan were evaluated. Based on the results of decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) and DEMATEL-based on the analytical network process methods, it is shown that station attributes and consumption environment attributes are key factors that impact product attributes. Moreover, store location, commercial activities offered, product diversity, time pressure, and service convenience have a “cause” characteristic and, therefore, should be focused on when deploying commercial services at HSR stations. The findings from the modified VlseKriterjumska Optimizacija I Kom-promisno Resenje method reveal that time pressure has the largest gap to aspiration level at almost all the stations. Finally, corresponding management implications to HSR stations are proposed.

Embodied GHG emissions of high speed rail stations: Quantification, data-driven prediction and cost-benefit analysis

The rapid development of high-speed rail (HSR) and air transport in China has encouraged research on the spatial effects and safety of these two modes of transport, and on the competition between them. We report here an investigation of the effects of competition between HSR and air transport in China from a geographical perspective. The spatial service hinterlands for HSR and air transport accessible within one and two hours by road transport were investigated using a method based on a geographical information system and the overlapping service hinterlands of HSR and air transport were established. A city with both HSR stations and airports, or that was accessible to HSR stations and airports within a certain travel time by road transport, was defined as the overlapping market. The spatial effects of competition between HSR and air transport at present and in the future were then studied with respect to the planned HSR network and airports. The results showed that both HSR and air transport tend to serve areas with high population densities and well-developed economies and in 2012 most of the population and GDP in China were accessible within two hours by road transport to an HSR station or airport. The different technical and economic characteristics of HSR and air transport determine the advantage markets. Spatially, the service hinterland of HSR mainly focuses on urban agglomerations and economic corridors in the eastern and central regions, whereas air transport has a competitive advantage in the more inaccessible western region of China. The overlapping market of HSR and air transport will become increasingly large in the future and cities with a population of over one million and cities within 30 km to both airports and HSR stations will become the major competitive markets. Considering the cost of construction and the number of passengers required for economic operation, as well as the competition with air transport, it is suggested that the construction of some HSR projects in the western region of China should be canceled or slowed down.

According to the innovation in services theory any substitution or addition of characteristics to a service is considered as incremental innovation with the objective of improving the final client’s utility. Moreover by service relationship, it is meant the establishment of relationships between the client and the provider with the objective of producing the final product. In the light of this theory stations are here conceived as a set of services and the added characteristics as temporary offices designed inside and around High Speed Rail stations. Therefore, the traditional concept of a station as a node changes since stations can be also considered as workplaces. The objective of this contribution is to identify the characteristics of the clients renting temporary offices and the role of High Speed Rail and more generally transport in this respect. A survey was employed, interviewing clients renting flexible offices inside the Garibaldi station in Naples in Italy. Data were collected concerning the clients’ socioeconomic characteristics, the transport mode chosen to reach these offices and the services used.

Multimodal public transport: an analysis of travel time elements and the interconnectivity ratio

Pricing policy of floating ticket fare for riding high speed rail based on time-space compression