Abstract
In this paper, several critical issues related to Chinese high-speed rails (CHSR) are analyzed, investigated and discussed, including development background, reasons for high ticket fare, some typical factors that influence the environmental life-cycle assessment, time and cost comparison of typical door-to-door travel routes between different transport modes and complementary strategies among different transport modes. First, the results show that the expanding high-speed rail network increased the pressure on the country's roads in the 2010 spring festival rush period due to the high ticket fare of CHSR. Second, due to lower than expected ridership because of the high ticket price and limited demand in less developed areas, some Chinese CHSR projects have become economically unsustainable. Third, without sufficient ridership and service life, the utilization of HSR was unable to show any advantages in the environmental impact compared with the other transport modes. In addition, the impact of shock from CHSR on Chinese domestic civil airlines is evident when the travel distance is below 1050 km. The key objective of the investigation is to enhance our understanding of the development and operation of Chinese high-speed rail. One of the key contributions of the current paper is the presented suggestions for complementary strategies between different transport modes to make full use of Chinese transportation resources to promote low carbon economy.
Highlights
1.1 Development of Chinese High-Speed Rails (CHSR)Chinese high-speed rail (CHSR) refers to any commercial train service in China with an average speed of 200 km/h or higher [1]
One of the main purposes of developing such an extensive CHSR project is to reduce the gap between the large social transportation demand and the relatively limited capacity of the railway network during holidays, especially the Chinese Spring Festival
At least half of the market share of air travel will be diverted by CHSR unless a deep discount of air ticket is made and good time performance is ensured, which is verified by the CHSR Wuhan-Guangzhou line (1069 km)
Summary
Chinese high-speed rail (CHSR) refers to any commercial train service in China with an average speed of 200 km/h or higher [1]. We show that among the total thirty-one provincial capital (or municipality directly under central government) cities in Chinese mainland whose area is approximately 9.6 million square kilometers, if Beijing (Capital of China) is set as the center, twenty-seven cities are within the eight-hour travel distance through the high-speed rail network. With these eight-hour-distance cities, thirteen cities are within the four-hour-distance and seven are within the six-hour-distance
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