Rail transit station and neighbourhood change: A mixed-method analysis with respect to neighbourhood context

Abstract

While increasing evidence suggests a determining role of urban rail transit in shaping and transforming cities and neighbourhoods, empirical studies on the simultaneous development of rail infrastructure and neighbourhood change are scarce. This paper attempts to evaluate the neighbourhood changes around rail transit stations as well as provide a possible explanation of how neighbourhoods can be differently affected by the presence of rail stations. Based on a longitudinal dataset (2006–2016) and using a mixed-method approach, a comparative analysis of six stations of the Tehran Metro Rail System is conducted between the high-income neighbourhoods and low-income neighbourhoods of the city. The Difference-in-Differences analysis yields that the northern high-income neighbourhoods and the southern low-income neighbourhoods of Tehran have experienced a heterogeneous model of changes in terms of demographic, housing, and land-use factors. In addition, the semi-structured interviews indicate that the heterogenous estimated changes in neighbourhoods around the case-study stations could be explained by the contextual factors of the northern and southern host neighbourhoods in Tehran including socio-cultural changes (social factors), land-use changes (physical factors) and the need for public transportation (transportation factors).