High-speed Rail Services Research Articles

The Relationship between High Speed Rail and Tourism

Much research has verified that the active development of the High Speed Rail (HSR) can create business activities and promote tourism growth. However, based on the related research review, there is currently a lack of profound discussion on the development of the overall transportation system and tourism growth in Taiwan, thus, this study intends to discuss this issue and hopes to provide an important reference for future regional development. This study conducts an in-depth investigation of the relationship between HSR and tourism volume. The Difference in Difference (DID) model is used to verify the impact of HSR services on the tourism volume in Taiwan. In addition, the aggregate data of socio-economic variables and the constituent factors of the transportation mode are incorporated. Finally, the possible consequences are described through elastic analysis. The results of this study can be an important reference for the future development of counties and cities.

Impacts of competition on connecting travelers: Evidence from the transatlantic aviation market

This paper examines the effects of competition driven by low-cost airlines and high-speed trains on long-haul connecting routings. We use passenger and fare data for 2010–2017 on transatlantic routings with a stopover in large European hub airports. Competition from low-cost airlines on the short segments of transatlantic routings reduces the number of connecting passengers channeled by hubbing airlines, who have to pay higher fares. In contrast, high-speed rail services are not found to lead to a reduction in the number of connecting passengers or to an increase in the price they have to pay.

Does China's high-speed rail development lead to regional disparities? A network perspective.

This research examines whether cities are getting more equally accessible and connected via high-speed rail (HSR) in China over the period from 2010 to 2015. Existing studies mainly use network centralities to describe the spatial pattern of HSR network without measuring the spatial disparity of these centralities, and most of them rely on the infrastructure network and thus fail to incorporate HSR service quality in the centrality measures. Using HSR timetable data, we incorporate both scheduled travel time and daily frequency of each origin-destination city pair into three centrality measures and further quantify their inequalities using Theil's T index. We find that as the HSR network expands, cities appear to be more equal in terms of accessibility, but their disparities in connectivity and transitivity depend on the dimensions of comparison. In general, although the difference between economic regions or between megalopolises has reduced, small/medium-sized cities not belonging to any major city cluster are further lagged behind in HSR development. The difference between core and non-core cities in the same megalopolises has decreased despite that non-core cities are increasingly relying on core cities to access other regions.

High-speed rail network development effects on the growth and spatial dynamics of knowledge-intensive economy in major cities of China

The development of high-speed rail (HSR) is a key component of China's overall economic development policy. HSR generates external effects across economic sectors and has the potential to transform spatial-economies. Understanding these effects is, therefore crucial for long-term urban and regional development policy and planning. This paper examines the effect of HSR development on the growth and spatial dynamics of knowledge-intensive economy (KE) in major cities of China. The analysis does not only adopt the widely used proxy of total length of HRS network, but it also includes the frequency of HSR services and its interactions with network length. HSR effects on: (a) absolute KE employment growth (b) KE spatial concentration and (c) KE regional specialisation are examined, controlling for relevant socio-economic variables. The results show that HSR network development and service frequency had varying effects on KE growth and spatial dynamics at multiple spatial scales. At the national level, HSR service frequency positively affected KE employment growth, concertation and specialisation, while HSR network expansion had a small but negative association with KE regional specialisation. Among the three main regions of China, positive effects of HSR service frequency were evident in the more prosperous eastern region. In contrast, effects were negligible in the less-developed central region. The results show that HSR development combines with existing favourable regional economic conditions to generate more growth in historically prosperous regions, thereby entrenching existing economic development imbalances. These insights could inform long-term strategic regional development policy to reduce uneven development outcomes in China.

The competition effects of low-cost carriers and high-speed rail on the Chinese aviation market

Despite the fast growth of the Chinese aviation market in recent years, various legacy regulations remain and a few big airlines dominate the domestic market. This study empirically investigates the competition effects of various passenger carriers on leading airlines' profitability and pricing strategy. Our study suggests that different types of carriers, namely low-cost carriers (LCCs), and the high-speed rail (HSR) operator, all bring effective competition to the aviation market by reducing airlines' profitability and prices. HSR services bring much more significant competition than LCCs, especially on short-distance routes below 1000 km. Chinese airline groups' “dual-brand” strategy did not enhance airlines’ profitability. These findings suggest that there can be multiple driving forces to increase the competitiveness of Chinese airlines. Any type of market deregulation could potentially lead to gains in consumer welfare. In addition, much of the market dynamics will be driven by HSR operations beyond the control of aviation regulators. Government authorities should consider coordinating the development of HSR services and new airports, and meanwhile promote competition in all forms.

Are conventional train passengers underserved after entry of high-speed rail?-Evidence from Chinese intercity markets

Despite rich literature on high-speed rail (HSR) and air transport interactions, the HSR's impact on the conventional (low-speed) rail service surprisingly has yet well studied. This paper fills in this research gap by providing empirical evidence in the Chinese intercity travel markets, where large-scale HSR expansion has been conducted since 2008. A nested logit utility model is developed to model passengers' travel mode choice between HSR and conventional train. A difference-in-differences (DID) method is then applied to measure HSR's impact on conventional train service frequency, price, and travel time. This paper then calculates and compares the welfare changes before and after the HSR entry for both the conventional and non-conventional rail passengers. It is found that entry of HSR has significantly reduced frequency of conventional train service, but not its travel time and ticket price. Such an adverse effect is more prominent on the shorter haul routes, probably as a result of the government's intervention to divert rail passengers to emerging HSR service. The calculated welfare loss to the conventional train passengers based on its current market size is approximately 3.41 billion RMB (487 million USD) as of 2017, a figure we consider on the side of conservative estimates. This loss accounts for 8% of the welfare gain brought by HSR to those non-conventional rail passengers. A special caution is, therefore, warranted when evaluating the benefit of the HSR development, as the welfare damage to the conventional train service and its passengers cannot be neglected.

On the modal shift from motorway to high-speed rail: evidence from Italy

Abstract The development of high-speed rail (HSR) has had a notable impact on modal market shares on the routes on which its services have been implemented. The aim of this study is to analyse whether the HSR expansion in Italy has led to a modal shift from motorway to HSR. We empirically test i) whether HSR openings adjacent to motorway sectors have reduced the total km travelled by light vehicles on these sectors during the period 2001–2017; and ii) whether this reduction has been persistent or even more evident after the opening of on-track competition between two HSR operators. To do so, we carried out a generalized difference-in-differences estimation, using a unique panel dataset that exploits the heterogeneous traffic data within all tolled motorway sectors in a quasi-experimental setting. Our findings reveal that neither HSR openings nor the opening of on-track competition led to a modal shift from motorway to HSR services, as the two transport modes are non-competing. Conversely, HSR expansion had a slightly positive impact on motorway traffic. The extent to which HSR demand could be the result of a modal shift from motorways is a relevant issue in any cost-benefit analysis of HSR investments.

Market concentration in German air transport before and after the Air Berlin bankruptcy

Market concentration in the airline industry, its measurement, causes, and consequences, has been a long-standing issue with airline representatives, public authorities, interest groups, and academics alike. This paper extends research on assessing market concentration in the airline industry by incorporating high-speed rail (HSR) services and connecting flights as travel alternatives to nonstop flights. Our methodology includes a connection builder calibrated with booking data, a Quality of Service Index (QSI) model for quality-weighting of travel alternatives, and the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI). We calculate HHI for origin and destination (O&D) city pairs originating in Germany on route and city level and provide aggregate metrics for all directional O&Ds worldwide ex Germany and across different destination categories applying a gravity model for size-weighting of O&Ds. Our findings support concerns about Lufthansa Group becoming more dominant in the German air transport market after the collapse of Air Berlin.

Measuring the performance of airport resilience to severe weather events

The increased severe weather events in recent years as a result of global climate change has created a substantial challenge for aviation system operation. Although transportation engineers and planners have attempted to improve system resilience through the adaptation of new technologies and the implementation of various strategies to achieve effective risk management, it remains unclear how resilience performance (measured by the speed of recovery) of airports varies in different severe weather events and what factors may explain such variations. This paper addresses these fundamental questions using the aviation system in China as an example. A resilience metric, which reflects the speed of recovery (bounce back) from a shock, was developed to measure the performance of airport resilience under various severe weather conditions. In addition, an empirical econometric analysis was conducted based on a dataset that includes both detailed aviation performance and weather conditions for the period of October 2016 – September 2017. The research findings show that airport resilience to severe weather events does vary substantially based on factors, such as weather conditions, airport capacity, and the level of modal substitution. In particular, the recovery time of air services in central and south China tends to be relatively longer in thunderstorms than other weather conditions. The study also confirms that modal substitution is a very effective resilience tactic of the transportation system as the recovery speed of air service was found to be faster by 22.9% if an alternative mode, such as high-speed rail (HSR) service was also available in the city.

Welfare implications for air passengers in China in the era of high-speed rail

Despite facing the rapid expansion of high-speed rail (HSR) services, China's airline industry has experienced substantial growth in the last decade. Using panel data from 2007 to 2016, this paper assesses the welfare changes for both economy- and business-class air passengers in China due to the HSR entry. We found that the demand for air travel is inelastic and that the HSR entry has led to significant welfare changes for air passengers. Specifically, air passengers in the short-distance markets were worse off, largely driven by a dramatic cut in flight frequency. However, over time, their welfare could improve when flight frequencies were restored. In contrast, in the medium- and long-distance markets, air passengers could be better off immediately after the HSR entry, thanks to the lower airfare and insignificant drop in flight frequency. However, a reduction in welfare was observed in the long run, after airlines gradually reduced the flight frequency.

Roles of accessibility, connectivity and spatial interdependence in realizing the economic impact of high-speed rail: Evidence from China

The rapid development of high-speed rail (HSR) in China has raised questions about its implications for regional economic growth. Most existing studies take an aggregate approach to quantify the economic impacts of HSR entrance primarily by inspecting the effect of the dummy variable which reflects the existence of HSR service. This paper takes one step further to investigate how network effects play a role in realizing these impacts. In particular, the effects of location endowment characteristics (evaluated by accessibility and connectivity) enabled by HSR development and the spatial interdependent effects (reflected by neighbors’ impacts) are examined. Based on the panel data from China during 2007–2015, we find that when these new factors are taken into account, the effect of the HSR dummy variable (reflecting the existence of HSR service) on regional economic growth is insignificant. On the contrary, the effects of both location endowment measurements, accessibility and connectivity in the railway network, and neighboring effects are significant. These important observations imply that: (1) The economic impact of HSR is largely accomplished by improving accessibility and connectivity in the railway network rather than an isolated presence of HSR infrastructure; (2) The accessibility and connectivity of neighboring cities impact the economic growth of one another; (3) HSR development has generated uneven economic growth concerning the cities in different geographic regions and with different population scales; (4) There is a mismatch between where the accessibility improves the most and where unit improvement generates the largest economic growth; (5) Accessibility and connectivity improvement by railway resulted in a smaller increase in economic growth than that of highway, but larger than those by air and water. These implications shed light on policies regarding multi-modal transport system planning, transport infrastructure investment, and HSR development and operations.

Can commuting facilitation relieve spatial misallocation of labor?

Migration barriers often lead to the spatial misallocation of labor across cities. Commuting facilitation is expected as the effective way to relieve labor spatial misallocation. This paper uses China's high-speed rail (HSR) network project as a source of exogeneous variation in commuting facilitation to examine its impact on labor spatial misallocation across cities. Results show that commuting facilitation plays a role in relieving labor spatial misallocation. The degree of labor spatial misallocation decreases by 5.2 percent when cities are directly connected by HSR. Market potential serves as the key mechanism for HSR network to reduce spatial misallocation. By the relief of spatial misallocation, HSR network increases the aggregate labor productivity and employment of the HSR-connected cities. However, the distributional effects of HSR network generate different impacts on core and peripheral cities. In particular, HSR network displaces the employment of skill-intensive sectors from periphery to core, and meantime promotes the employment creation of labor-intensive sectors in the periphery. Despite siphon effect, HSR network improves the labor productivity of both core and periphery. We consequently argue that siphon effect derived from commuting facilitation is not always harmful, and it could also be a driver to relieve misallocation.In addition, the effect of HSR on spatial misallocation increases with the improvement of HSR services quality, and weakens with the difficulty of labor in relocation.

The associations of newly launched high-speed rail stations with industrial gentrification

Industrial gentrification occurs when lower-skill or lower-wage industries are displaced by higher-skill or higher-wage industries caused by various driving forces. This research explored the associations of newly launched high-speed rail (HSR) stations with industrial gentrification. Sample data were obtained from business registration records from 2010 to 2018 for areas surrounding the Hangzhou East Railway Station (a new HSR station in newly developing areas) and Hangzhou Railway Station (a pre-existing rail station in developed areas) in China. Cox proportional hazard regressions were applied to analyze the survival risks of businesses. Empirical results suggest that the newly launched HSR services have induced industrial gentrification in the developed station area. Except for the displacement of agricultural production activities, HSR-induced industrial gentrification has not yet been manifested in the newly developed station area. The latter phenomenon is because of the sufficiently available lands and floor spaces for industrial development and the lower-skill or lower-wage industries and higher-skill or higher-wage industries that benefit from HSR services in the form of revenues.

Assessment of High-Speed Rail Service Coverage in Municipalities of Peninsular Spain

The Spanish transportation and housing infrastructure plan has planned that in 2024 all provincial capitals in peninsular Spain are to be connected by high-speed rail lines. Nowadays, 35 stations are already operational. These stations and the roads to access them are very important, as these are the only access points for travelers to benefit from the high railway speed. The goal of this study is to evaluate the railway coverage of high-speed services in Spanish peninsular municipalities in 2018 and planned for 2024. A methodology and research tools related to accessibility from municipalities to stations have been used, based on Geographic information Systems. An interaction model was used based on the floating catchment area in three steps. The resulting thematic maps and the analysis of the number of municipalities and the resident population is based on the degree of coverage in 2018. Likewise, in 2024 almost all of the municipalities are planned to have high high-speed railway coverage, these being the most densely populated. The analysis allowed us to present a detailed view of the problem; a methodology and a specific application framework are offered to make the high-speed rail services in Spain more equitable.

High-speed rail system in China: best practice, state of affairs and prospects for development

The article analyzes the experience of organizing high-speed rail services in China, the current state and development prospects. An analysis of open sources and publications on this topic is carried out. The characteristics of the infrastructural support of the most significant transport facilities of high-speed rail transportation are given and the question of further development of high-speed rail service in People’s Republic of China is considered. An assessment is made of the economic and social significance of China’s high-speed railway lines.

Venture Capital and Corporate Social Responsibility

We examine the impact on venture capital (VC) involvement and monitoring on their portfolio companies' corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance. Exploiting the timing of VC exit, we find that CSR performance of VC-backed companies improves after the exit of VC. Using the age of VC funds as an instrument for VC exit, we find that the effect is likely to be causal. We also find that portfolio firms' CSR performance declines after the introduction of direct high speed rail services between VC firms and their portfolio companies. Further analyses suggest that the effect is largely driven by inexperienced, bad performing, and less reputable VCs.

Is multimarket contact an antitrust concern? A case of China’s airline market

Abstract When firms meet in more than one market, it is generally regarded that the possibility of collusion will increase because of mutual interdependence (or mutual forbearance). Mutual forbearance is tacit collusion that directly results from familiarity and deterrence. This paper examines the effect of multimarket contact on airline prices in the Chinese domestic airline market where private and low-cost carriers have been thriving and high-speed rail services growing quickly in the last few years. We find strong evidence supporting the mutual forbearance hypothesis in high revenue markets. We also find that the collusive effect due to increasing multimarket contact is insignificant within the same airline group, whereas multimarket contact between airlines in different airline groups triggers higher airfares.

Optimal High-Speed Railway Timetable by Stop Schedule Adjustment for Energy-Saving

Timetable optimization techniques offer opportunity for saving energy and hence reducing operational costs for high-speed rail services. The existing energy-saving timetable optimization is mainly concentrated on the train running state adjustment and the running time redistribution between two stations. Not only the adjustment space of timetables is limited, but also it is hard for the train to reach the optimized running state in reality, and it is difficult to get feasible timetable with running time redistribution between two stations for energy-saving. This paper presents a high-speed railway energy-saving timetable based on stop schedule optimization. Under the constraints of safety interval and stop rate, with the objective of minimizing the increasing energy consumption of train stops and the shortest travel time of trains, the high-speed railway energy-saving timetable optimization model is established. The fuzzy mathematics programming method is used to design an efficient algorithm. The proposed model and algorithm are demonstrated in the actual operation data of Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway. The results show that the total operating energy consumption of the train is reduced by 3.7%, and the total travel time of the train is reduced by 11 minutes.

Does high-speed rail boost urban tourism economy in China?

ABSTRACT The construction of high-speed rail (HSR) has made a substantial contribution to social development. However, further research is necessary on how to evaluate the impact of HSR services on the tourism economy. Based on regional panel data of 286 municipalities, we adopted propensity score matching and difference-in-difference methods to study the impact of HSR services on urban tourism economic between 2005 and 2015. The findings suggest that the attraction of HSR to inbound tourists measures 12% higher than the attraction of HSR to domestic tourists. Furthermore, HSR services have a significant influence on only inbound tourism revenues (11.2%). Our results provide authorities and policymakers with useful tools when planning the development of tourism in an HSR area.

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.