Intercity Passenger Rail Research Articles

Urban Mass Transit and Housing Price in China: An Exploratory Analysis of Guangzhou, Wuhan and Chengdu

This study investigates the spatial impact of urban transit systems on housing prices with a focus on three Chinese metropolitan areas -- Guangzhou, Wuhan and Chengdu. Based on a dataset of 7,348 housing properties located in 14 cities, a spatial hedonic modeling approach is adopted to assess the accessibility impact of three different types of urban mass transit systems -- bus, metro and intercity passenger rail -- on housing values. After controlling for physical characteristics of housing property, characteristics of the neighboring environment and locational accessibility, our study finds that the spatial impact of urban transit systems vary substantially across different metro areas as well as by different types of service. While a developed metro system in cities such as Guangzhou, tends to have a positive impact on housing prices, a negative impact is also confirmed in cities like Chengdu, where major metro networks are still under development. Conversely, the impact of the newly deployed intercity passenger rail services on housing prices are confirmed to be significant, although varied across different regions.

Integrated Fuzzy Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution Framework for Evaluating High-Speed Passenger Rail Corridor Alternatives

This paper develops a multiple criteria and multimethod approach for evaluating the suitability of alternative right-of-way (ROW) corridors to accommodate high-speed intercity passenger rail (HSIPR) operations. An alignment decision for HSIPR involves consideration of multiple criteria and trade-offs. Policy makers often face uncertainty in evaluating and selecting alternative options and usually consider alternatives in a fuzzy environment in which subjectivity and vagueness are present. This paper develops an integrated evaluation model that uses the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) methods to address some of these issues. The study identifies potential sketch-planning performance metrics and demonstrates their usefulness and inclusion in the integrated fuzzy AHP–TOPSIS methodology in comparing alternative ROW corridor options. In contrast to detailed engineering evaluation, the developed sketch-planning metrics provide a cost- and time-effective way of assessing alternative suitability. A case study application with existing highway ROW in Texas demonstrates the applicability of the proposed framework. Apart from ranking alternatives, a detailed sensitivity analysis assesses the effect of performance metrics weights on the preferences between alternatives using a displacement index. The proposed framework creates a more effective and systematic decision support tool for preliminary corridor alternative evaluation.

Bicycle Network Connectivity for Passenger Rail Stations

Interest in improving and adding intercity passenger rail service is growing in the United States and the rest of the world. Passenger rail development is complex and includes many factors including how well it is integrated into cities. Transportation trends in the United States show that more people are choosing alternative transportation options and that auto ownership is declining. The development of new rail systems and improvement of existing systems need to consider all users, including those who access stations with alternative transportation such as bicycles. An analysis approach is proposed to compare how well rail stations allow access to bicycles by studying their connectivity to low-stress bicycle links and how well they allow access to workplaces and residences. The approach is demonstrated with a case study in Salem, Oregon. This city is on Amtrak's Cascades Corridor and is currently undergoing an environmental impact study for improved service. The existing station and two alternative station locations are analyzed. The results indicate that the two stations located adjacent to downtown provide superior bicycle connectivity to workplaces and residences compared with the station located near the airport.

Value capture beyond municipalities: transit-oriented development and inter-city passenger rail investment in China’s Pearl River Delta

Existing research rarely systematically reviews how China has funded or will fund expanding transit systems. We argue that fiscal regulations have shaped how China’s municipal governments plan for and invest in passenger rail services and land development around stations, and that policy reforms are necessary to bring successful transit-oriented development and transit operation for China’s next round of urbanization. Using Pearl River Delta (PRD) as the study case, we review the planning and funding processes for an inter-city passenger rail services, and reveal how a new funding and planning framework has been developed out of pre-existing organizational and legal constraints. The central piece of this innovation is a value capture framework beyond municipal boundaries, which tighten the connection between transit funding and transit-oriented development. The PRD experience has implications for other megaregions in China.

High-speed rail: will it change the dynamics of US intercity passenger travel?

As both the skies and highways become more crowded, travellers continue to look for cheaper and efficient alternatives. The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, commonly known as Amtrak, faces increased pressure to meet this need. Notorious for failing to meet on-time standards as well as operating consistently at a loss, discussions of the implementation of high-speed rail (HSR) projects has caused increased optimism in the future of US intercity passenger rail. This study reports on research conducted in 2009 comparing US air carriers and highway travel with current Amtrak service. A discussion of HSR is included with an examination of the effects it could have on intercity transportation. Our conclusion is that Amtrak continues to compete ineffectively despite an increase in popularity and any introduction of HSR will require significant changes to current intercity rail travel system.

Development of Multicriteria Decision Method for Evaluating High-Speed Rail Corridor

Projects for high-speed intercity passenger rail are complex and require many years of planning and environmental activities before construction can begin. Given the complexity of planning and environmental reviews associated with planning a high-speed intercity passenger rail corridor, a systematic approach for high-level screening of various alternative routings for proposed high-speed rail corridors is desirable. In this context, a multicriteria decision-making framework was proposed to assist planners of high-speed rail with the preliminary screening and ranking of potential high-speed rail corridors. The proposed framework was applied to the question of ranking 13 alternative routings for connecting the South Central and Gulf Coast federally designated highspeed rail corridors located in Texas. Attributes that were incorporated into the decision framework include population, travel demand, capital costs, land use and environmental impacts, and engineering suitability. Although the developed framework cannot be used to replace the environmental review process and formal alternatives analysis completely, it can be used by planners as a tool for preliminary screening or ranking of proposed high-speed rail corridors for detailed analysis.

Economic Impacts of Amtrak Intercity Passenger Rail Service in Michigan

Amtrak operates three trains on routes in Michigan: the Wolverine, the Blue Water, and the Pere Marquette. Using the methodology established in the 2009 Michigan Passenger Rail Station Community Benefits Study, this study considered the economic impacts of Michigan Amtrak service in the 22 communities served by these routes. Results from the 2009 study were updated to reflect current ridership and ticket revenue data, as well as findings from passenger surveys conducted in spring 2011. Considering individual traveler savings, passenger spending at local businesses, and Amtrak-related expenditures, Amtrak service generated an estimated economic impact to the state of Michigan in excess of $45.8 million in 2011. The average economic impact (excluding Amtrak expenditures) was $37.87 per passenger. Every $1.00 invested by the state of Michigan for operations of the Blue Water and Pere Marquette routes returned $1.84 in economic impact to local communities and travelers along these routes. The findings of this analysis contribute to a small but growing body of literature that quantifies the economic impacts of existing Amtrak passenger rail service and have several applications for passenger rail planning, policy development, and outreach activities.

Forecasting high-speed rail ridership using a simultaneous modeling approach

The newly launched, June 2009, US High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail Program has rekindled a renewed interest in forecasting high-speed rail (HSR) ridership. The first step to the concerted effort by the federal, state, rail, and other related agencies to develop a nationwide HSR network is the development of credible approaches to forecast the ridership. This article presents a nested logit/simultaneous choice model to improve the demand forecast in the context of intercity travel. In addition to incorporating the interrelationship between trip generation and mode choice decisions, the simultaneous model also provides a platform for the same utility function flowing between both the decision-making processes. Using American Travel Survey data, supplemented by various mode parameters, the proposed model improves the forecast accuracy and confirms the significant impact of travel costs on both mode choice and trip generation. Furthermore, the cross elasticity of mode choice and trip generation related to travel costs and other modal characteristics may shed some light on transportation policies in the area of intercity travel, especially in anticipation of HSR development.

American intercity passenger rail must be truly high-speed and transit-oriented

The High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail (HSIPR) Program succeeds in proposing a truly high-speed rail route in California that will offer travelers significantly faster trips than driving on a route that is too short to conveniently fly instead. Unfortunately, the proposed routes in the Northeast, Midwest, and Northwest will continue to chug along at medium-speeds and attract few new riders from among those who currently travel those areas via highway or air. The plan does indeed succeed in calling for TOD around high-speed rail stations. The HSIPR Program must, however, encourage local planning jurisdictions to broadly liberalize land use controls to allow for compact development rather than writing new zoning codes to require the intensive land uses developers desire anyway. Trains must truly be fast, with stations surrounded by dense development, for America’s high-speed rail plan to realize its full potential.

Intercity Passenger Rail Access to Airports

The increased demand for air travel and diminishing airport capacity, coupled with a new role for passenger rail in intercity corridors across the United States, have renewed interest in the development of intermodal connections between airports and intercity passenger rail among transportation planners and policy makers. As a result, there is a need for a better understanding of who might be using such connections and how the connections might support intermodal travel activities. This paper examines the characteristics of passengers using the airport–intercity passenger rail interface at the Milwaukee, Wisconsin, airport—one of only four such direct connections currently in existence in the United States. In addition to providing a sustainable alternative to automobile ground access trips to the airport, intercity passenger rail at the Milwaukee airport has expanded the airport's market area well into the Chicago, Illinois, region, approximately 80 mi to the south. The findings indicate that passengers value the convenience and reliability of the service in choosing intercity passenger rail to access the airport. Airport and intercity passenger rail planners are encouraged to consider the findings of this paper in planning activities for future airport–intercity passenger rail interfaces.

Decision Support System to Optimize Railway Stopping Patterns

An intercity passenger rail is built to connect several major cities. To provide satisfactory services to passengers, railway operators plan different stop schedules, such as all-stop, skip-stop, and express services. However, stopping patterns determined by empirical rules or political arguments are generally not optimal. This paper aims at developing a decision support system to generate the optimal combination of stopping patterns for minimizing total passenger in-vehicle time. This problem was first formulated by using mixed integer programming, but this method is intractable when dealing with large-scale problems because of the complexity of model structure and the nature of the problem. A genetic algorithm was then developed to search for the optimal or near-optimal solution efficiently within a reasonable computation time. The proposed algorithm was successfully implemented on Taiwan High Speed Rail. The resulting solution is better than the current practice, and the proposed algorithm is capable of finding the optimal solution in seconds. The present case study demonstrates that the decision support tool can tackle large-scale problems and can help operators efficiently and effectively design an optimal combination of stopping patterns.

Public Policy or Popular Demand?

This essay examines the transition from a rail-based intercity transportation system in California in 1910 to a road/private auto-based system thirty years later, with hypotheses that the transition could be explained by either corporate and state decisions for supplying infrastructure or by public demand. The essay examines trends of automobile ownership, road investment, bus organization and service provision, intercity passenger rail service provision, and intercity rail revenues, both within California and to and from California in each of the three decades. It concludes that public preference for private automobility explains most of the transition but that unserved demand remained for fast passenger train service between the state's large metropolitan areas. Failure to serve that demand derived from California's legacy of popular disdain for the private railroad industry.

Economic Impacts of Intercity Passenger Rail Service

Recent policy and funding developments have stimulated interest in high-speed and intercity passenger rail. Given the present economic climate of the country, particular interest lies in the impacts of new or expanded passenger rail services on local or regional economies. Using evidence from rail passenger surveys, this paper examines the economic impacts of existing state-supported passenger rail service in a growing intercity corridor of the south central United States. Economic impacts were measured by analyzing passengers' self-reported expenditures on selected items during their rail trip. The results of the analysis showed an estimated spending impact on local communities of more than $18 million in total, with more than $1.3 million of local sales tax generated by rail passengers in the study corridor. If the service were discontinued, an estimated 30% of these impacts would be lost. The findings of this analysis inform passenger rail planning efforts by providing better understanding of the financial considerations and also assist rail planners in developing local support for new rail projects.

Estimation of option and non-use values for intercity passenger rail services

This paper considers option and non-use values of intercity passenger rail services in Korea. The total economic value of a given transport service can be classified into use, option and non-use values, but other grouping rules can be applied, respectively. The use value is the consumer’s surplus from the actual ride of a specific mode. The option value, on the other hand, can be defined as a traveller’s willingness to pay for reserving a travel mode, which is not his or her main choice, as a standby alternative. Finally, the non-use value represents benefits that are not attributable to the actual use or option use, but to the vicarious, altruistic, functional and existing worth of a transport service. A random stated preference survey based on a double-bounded dichotomous choice is conducted. A survival model is applied to the data collected. Calculations are based on trip makers’ willingness to pay for option and non-use values, using the parameters of the estimated survival model. Some concluding remarks are also presented.

Approaching a three‐day turnaround for e‐reserves: learning from Amtrak's mistakes

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to apply the best practices defined by the Government Accounting Office (GAO) in its assessment of Amtrak to infrastructure improvements in electronic reserves at Columbia University Libraries.Design/methodology/approachThe paper draws on a 2004 GAO report, Intercity Passenger Rail, to set a framework for the handling of infrastructure improvement projects, and then examines a hypothetical electronic reserves project in light of that framework.FindingsThis paper concludes that the best practices laid out in the GAO report, which include comprehensive planning, risk assessment, comprehensive financial management, accountability and oversight, and stakeholder involvement, are appropriate guidelines for any infrastructure improvement project. Many projects must address issues outside of infrastructure, however, and may benefit from outcomes‐based goals and policy adjustments.Originality/valueThe paper is of benefit in the planning of library projects that include infrastructure improvements.

Imperfect substitutes: competitive analysis failure in US intercity passenger rail

The National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) has come under increasing scrutiny from a US Administration whose 2006 budget called for no operating subsidies for the company which continues to lose money on all but a few of its routes. Supporters argued that after September 11th, ridership would increase as US consumers sought alternative means of transportation. This study reports on research conducted in the first quarter of 2005 comparing US air carriers with Amtrak service. The conclusion is that efforts by Amtrak to compete with air carriers on most of their routes are likely to be ineffective and costly.

Buying into Amtrak: One Way to Fit American Railroads into Government’s Transportation Spending

The nearly certain failure of the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) to meet a legislated mandate of attaining commercial self-sufficiency in 2002 and the major reassessment of transportation policies precipitated by America’s war on terrorism have opened a window of opportunity to improve the terms by which passenger trains fit into U.S. transportation policy. The future success of intercity passenger rail depends on going back to the drawing board of transportation policy to revisit railroads’ access to public finance. A major change from the public policy status quo on the rail mode’s financing recommends restructuring Amtrak to become a joint venture between government and privately owned railroads, as was envisioned by the original Rail Passenger Service Act of 1970. This change in corporate ownership would occur parallel with, and facilitate the implementation of, a new account in the transportation trust fund devoted to improvements in intercity rail infrastructure. This account would receive the tax revenues collected from some combination of federal excise taxes levied on railroad diesel fuel, other transportation expenditure by railroads (e.g., parts and equipment), passenger tickets, and express freight shipments. A share of railroads’ income taxes (or other sources of public revenue) could supplement the public revenues flowing into such a fund. Expenditures would be made on upgrading rail infrastructure capacity to handle increasing volumes of freight and passenger traffic and, where appropriate, to develop dedicated high-speed passenger rail infrastructure alongside existing rail rights-of-way.

Intercity Rail Fixed-Interval, Timed-Transfer, Multihub System: Applicability of the Integraler Taktfahrplan Strategy to North America

The Integraler Taktfahrplan (ITF) strategy for coordinating intercity rail and other modes at multiple timed-transfer hubs is described. The ongoing Swiss experience in establishing a countrywide ITF system is presented, and the ITF strategy is applied to North America, using a region within the United States. The Swiss Rail + Bus 2000 Plan will bring all intercity public transportation modes into a comprehensive fixed-interval, timed-transfer, multihub system, including high-speed intercity trains, regular intercity and regional trains, buses, ferries, and funiculars. Timed connections with urban transit systems will be provided. The repeating schedule, associated with the ITF strategy, allows for two powerful analysis and communication tools: ( a) a schedule map and ( b) symmetrical train graphs. The schedule map helps planning, marketing, scheduling, engineering, and operations work together as they iteratively design the system. The map, which graphically combines routes and schedules, is easy to understand and sell to policy makers and the public. Symmetrical train graphs help with the detailed engineering and cost-benefit analyses. The ITF strategy first develops the schedule on the basis of the potential market and then selects the most appropriate mode and infrastructure improvements to make any required travel-time savings needed for the timed transfers. Because a view of the system as a whole is provided, the benefits of a large capital investment or an ongoing operating subsidy can be properly weighed. For intercity passenger rail, this strategy provides a way to capitalize on the existing rail resources in a cost-effective manner: to build and fund only what is needed, but also to build and fund what is truly needed.

Why has the market not been created for Channel Tunnel regional passenger rail services?

Summary Development benefits from the Channel Tunnel for the British regions beyond London depend largely upon the availability of through rail services to and from Europe. This paper examines the failure of deregulation, privatization and government policy to set up the forecast market in such a way that the British regions are included in the European matrix of high‐speed intercity passenger rail services.

High-Speed Ground Transportation is Coming to America—Slowly

Over the past four decades, the United States has invested heavily in highways and airport improvements, and in general has opted not to develop intercity passenger rail service. Over the same period, by contrast, Europe and Japan have committed large sums of money to developing high-speed guided ground transportation and building extensive new high-speed rail networks. The United States launched a high-speed ground transportation (HSGT) initiative in the mid-1960s and abandoned it in the mid-1970s. Now the Clinton administration proposes to support HSGT development, but the level and type of support remains to be worked out. This paper explores the prologue to and current prospects for HSGT development in the United States.