Theme Issue Spatial Implications And Planning Criteria For High Speed Rail Cities And Regions

Spatial Implications and Planning Criteria for High-speed Rail Cities and Regions evaluates the varied experiences that HSR systems have brought about to different station-cities and their regional territories around the world, with an eye towards better future planning and policy of such systems. This edited volume draws from examples of high-speed rail operations in different cities in Europe and Asia to depict the various impacts of this major transportation infrastructure. It attempts to distinguish the short- and long-term impacts described in the literature, classifying them into regional and inter-urban effects, urban effects, and wider economic impacts. Planning challenges appear at two major points: 1) during the initial planning stage that includes the route and location of stations; and 2) during the development process that follows. The case studies in the book concentrate on a variety of topics from the impact of high-speed rail on population growth in some station-cities, to the regional economic impacts that an HSR system can bring about to the larger territories it passes through, to the potential of station-cities to better attract firms, or to experience increases in tourism and commerce. They also assess planning strategies and experiences from station-cities to draw lessons for future HSR planning policies. The Chapters in this book were originally published in a special issue of European Planning Studies.

Globalization has magnified the role of regions, restructuring social and economic relationships into networks that span increasing distances. At the same time, greater attention is paid to urban quality, as non-vehicular modes and compact forms of development become critical in an environmentally conscious world. Within this context, increasing interest and adoption of high-speed rail (HSR)-- mode with spatial sustainability objectives--is unsurprising. HSR has the potential to integrate cities into mutually supportive networks across long distances while also supporting more sustainable forms of development. For HSR to become a sustainable investment, however, requires coordinated policy efforts across levels of government and at different points in a project's life-cycle. This investigation spans multiple scales of the physical environment and institutional sphere, examines ways of coupling institutional change with technological change, and addresses the importance of uncertainty as a driver of system behavior. We focus on inter-jurisdictional relationships, with special attention paid to smaller intermediate cities brought within one-hour's travel time of a larger metropolis by HSR services. Mid-distance service (

High speed rail (HSR) is being touted as a strategic investment for connecting people across regions, while also fostering prosperity and smart urban growth. However, as its popularity increases, its implementation has become contentious with various parties contesting the validity of socioeconomic and environmental objectives put forward as justification for investment. High Speed Rail and Sustainability explores the environmental, economic and social effects of developing a HSR system, presenting new evaluations of the proposed system in California in the US as well as lessons from international experience. Drawing upon the accumulated experience from past HSR system development around the world, leading experts present a diverse set of perspectives as well as diverse contexts of implementation. Assessments of the California case as well as cases from Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Taiwan, China, and the UK show how governments and stakeholders have bridged the gap between the vision and the realities of connecting metropolitan regions through HSR. This is a valuable resource for academics, researchers and policy-makers in the areas of urban planning, civil engineering, transportation and environmental design.

High Speed Rail Planning, Policy and Engineering looks at the question of where a high-speed passenger rail line would be most productive and how it could be profitable. It investigates the political issues confronting high-speed rail funding and location. This first volume looks at recent achievements in high-speed rail, including record high speeds for trains operating with steel wheels on steel rail. It also covers the history of high-speed rail operations, particularly in the United States. The book examines possible existing routes for development of high-speed rail systems, how right-of-way and terminals might be configured, and the possibilities of track structure. This volume also reviews operating parameters, including the relationship between cost and speed, the issue of security in all aspects as relates to high-speed rail, and different types of high-speed rail systems are evaluated, including true purpose-built high-speed systems, hybrid systems, and what are called blended systems.

"There is renewed interest in developing high-speed intercity passenger rail (HSIPR) in the United States, revitalizing a transport mode that has long since lost most intercity travelers to competing modes of transportation such as automobile and airplane. For the construction of an HSIPR network to be successful, it is important to understand the locational benefits and disparities associated with this proposed network. This dissertation examines the potential impact of HSIPR in the United States using accessibility and equity measures at both the national and local scales with three broad goals: (1) project the impact of HSIPR in the United States using location-based accessibility measures at a national scale, (2) evaluate the locational effect of both the current railway upgrade plans and the full HSIPR plan along the southeast corridor of the United States, and (3) assess the spatial patterns of multimodal accessibility at the census-tract level via different intercity travel modes, using a social-equity perspective in the case of seven metropolitan statistical areas along the Southeast HSR corridor of North Carolina. Unlike most past research, accessibility to HSIPR is measured using a multimodal transportation network in ArcGIS through a combination of road, railway, and air travel, considering access/egress time to/from train stations or airports as well as waiting and transfer times. Overall, the findings of this dissertation suggest that HSIPR will significantly lead to nationwide and local accessibility gains, and it will contribute to lessening the spatial disparity of accessibility with intercity travel both from the perspectives of personal travel and economic development. While the highest travel-time accessibility gains will go to the central and eastern United States, the largest economic-potential accessibility gain is expected in the cities along the northeast rail corridor. The faster HSIPR service will compete with air mode by 34.3% more than current, specifically in the areas that are reachable within five hours by train. At the regional scale, there will be overall accessibility gains in the Southeast corridor from the upgraded speed of HSIPR, with more benefits concentrated in cities where the trains will stop, such as Raleigh, Greensboro, Charlotte in North Carolina and Greenville, South Carolina. However, a tract-level accessibility analysis reveals that the accessibility gains will be concentrated only in specific parts of a city, with the highest concentration found near rail station areas of Raleigh and Durham, North Carolina, Greenville, South Carolina, and Richmond, Virginia. It is expected that cities along the Southeast corridor will experience improved spatial equity, but the accessibility gap between cities with and cities off the HSIPR system remains. This suggests that upgrading regional intrastate transportation will be necessary to more equally distribute the accessibility benefits from HSR cities to non-HSR cities. Most census tracts in the Southeast will gain spatial equity, but less-accessible areas will receive greater benefits. While both the high- and low-income groups show better accessibility equity from all modes of transportation after completion of HSIPR in the Southeast region, the middle-income group will have less-accessibility equity. This may be a result of the scattered residential locations of the middle-income group compared to the centrally located populations of the high and low-income groups."--Abstract from author supplied metadata

The conflict of efficiency vs. cohesion objectives is of particular interest in the transport planning field. If the only objective was the maximization of economic growth, the 'most efficient' policy would attempt to concentrate the economic activity in several strong regional centres and interconnect them with a high quality transport network, such as High-Speed Rail (HSR). However, this policy would have a negative impact on terriotiral cohesion, as it would lead to more polarized spatial development patterns. Aware of these polarisation risks of HSR, transport policy documents at different administrative levels - from the local to the European scale- are increasingly demanding the inclusion of cohesion impacts in HSR assessment methodologies. However, there is no consensus on how these impacts should be measured. In addition, it is important to define the planning level at which cohesion effects are measured, as it may occur that simultaneously e.g. both a positive effect at the regional level and a negative effects at the national level would take place. Recent publications on this topic have highlighted the methodological advantages of spatial analysis to address these cohesion issues. In particular, accessibility analysis has special strengths to define how transport and development impacts are distributed across geographical areas or population groups, therefore including compatibility with cohesion objectives. In this context, this research work presents a methodology in which impacts on territorial cohesion of HSR investments are assessed using an accessibility approach. Cohesion impacts are assessed at different planning levels: local, regional, corridor and national levels, from the combination of graphical and statistical analyses, supported by a Geographical Information System (GIS). Hence, the influence of the planning level is assessed.

Handbook on High-Speed Rail and Quality of Life outlines global experiences of high-speed rail development, including its construction, impacts, and planning, with a special focus on countries that are planning implementation in the coming decade. High-speed rail infrastructure can bring considerable socioeconomic benefits that cannot be captured through econometric modeling alone. Thus, analysis of the true impacts requires a scalar as well as a temporal lens. The studies in this handbook discuss transport infrastructure projects of varying geographic scale and describe the underlying complexities of developing an infrastructure system while focusing on the aspects that can enhance quality of life. The cases, concepts, and ideas presented in this handbook were discussed and refined during a conference and seminar series held at the Asian Development Bank Institute in Tokyo and special sessions on transport and quality of life at the 15th World Conference on Transport Research at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay in Mumbai. The special sessions were jointly organized by the Asian Development Bank Institute and World Conference on Transport Research Society Special Interest Group A4, "High-Speed Rail: Policy, Investment, and Impacts". The conference and special sessions highlighted critical issues and delivered key messages on the broad research on high-speed rail and quality of life.

The role of railways in urban development is the subject of this book. The central aim is to inquire into how especially the development of high-speed rail and light rail links will affect European cities. The analyses are carried out with special attention given to the broader institutional environment of the railway system, including the shift toward privatised railway companies and internationalisation.