Abstract
Introducing a High-Speed Rail technology between the Saudi Arabian cities starts raising many challenging issues of different nature ranging from technical to operational, which require huge investments in infrastructure, operations and maintenance. Background information about the development of HSR worldwide to date is included. However, the main aim of this paper is to determine a methodology to estimate the full cost of travel and provide insights into the working model developed to include the calculations of the total social costs of building a new HSR line for the Riyadh-Dammam corridor in Saudi Arabia and understand in what circumstances it is a suitable technology to use. The Spreadsheet Total Cost Model (STCM) is used to determine the calculations of operator costs, user costs, and environmental costs. In order to determine the total social costs of proposed HSR line worldwide, the travel demand has to be forecasted. In this paper, the gravity demand model is used as a function of independent variables for the cities alongside with the proposed line such as the population, GDP per capita, the generalized journey time, unemployment rate, years since opening the corridor, and the dummy variable if applicable. As a result of this paper, the total social costs of constructing and operating the proposed HSR line is 1,090,106,913 resulted from the sum of the total operator cost that is valued of €859,797,307 per year, the total user cost of €216,769,247 per year, and the total external environmental cost of €13,540,359 per year. In conclusion, the governments and supranational agencies are usually supporting the investment in HSR infrastructure in order to improve the speed and efficiency of the network overall between cities, provide a better experience for passengers, and increase the economy by creating jobs and wealth in the long term.
Highlights
IntroductionHigh-Speed Rail (HSR) is defined as a technical topic and complex reality, comprised of different various technical elements such as infrastructure (new lines designed to run at “a maximum speed of 250 km/h or more”), rolling stock (special designed train sets), and operations rules, maintenance systems, etc., using highly sophisticated technology (International Union of Railways, 2017a).Total Social Costs of a High-Speed Rail Line CountryIn operation (km)Under construction (km)Total network (km) TotalHSR is involved into three main characteristics, including safety, capacity, and sustainability that are offered to customers and society (Angoiti, 2010)
High-Speed Rail (HSR) is defined as a technical topic and complex reality, comprised of different various technical elements such as infrastructure, rolling stock, and operations rules, maintenance systems, etc., using highly sophisticated technology (International Union of Railways, 2017a).Total Social Costs of a High-Speed Rail Line CountryIn operationUnder constructionTotal network TotalSource: (International Union of Railways, 2019).HSR is involved into three main characteristics, including safety, capacity, and sustainability that are offered to customers and society (Angoiti, 2010)
In many HSR projects that are in service or under construction, the land and planning costs, and the cost of main stations are commonly excluded in the infrastructure construction costs, as the average cost of an HSR line per kilometers ranges from e10 to 40 million in 2009 prices (De Rus, 2012)
Summary
High-Speed Rail (HSR) is defined as a technical topic and complex reality, comprised of different various technical elements such as infrastructure (new lines designed to run at “a maximum speed of 250 km/h or more”), rolling stock (special designed train sets), and operations rules, maintenance systems, etc., using highly sophisticated technology (International Union of Railways, 2017a).Total Social Costs of a High-Speed Rail Line CountryIn operation (km)Under construction (km)Total network (km) TotalHSR is involved into three main characteristics, including safety, capacity, and sustainability that are offered to customers and society (Angoiti, 2010). High-Speed Rail (HSR) is defined as a technical topic and complex reality, comprised of different various technical elements such as infrastructure (new lines designed to run at “a maximum speed of 250 km/h or more”), rolling stock (special designed train sets), and operations rules, maintenance systems, etc., using highly sophisticated technology (International Union of Railways, 2017a). HSR is in operation in more than 16 countries, including Japan, France, Germany, Spain, Belgium, United Kingdom, South Korea, Italy, Taiwan, China, Saudi Arabia, and the Netherlands. As of January 2019, the total length of HSR networks in operation worldwide is 45,996 kilometers, divided between 14 Asian countries, 17 European countries, and 8 other countries.
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