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The BCA of HSR Should the government invest in high speed rail infrastructure?

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  • De Rus, Ginés

Abstract

This paper deals with public investment in High Speed Rail (HSR) infrastructure and tries to understand the economic rationale for allocating public money to the construction of new HSR lines. The exam of data on costs and demand shows that the case for investing in HSR requires several conditions to be met: an ex ante high volume of traffic in the corridor where the new line is built, significant time savings, high average willingness to pay of potential users, the release of capacity in the conventional rail network and airports. On the contrary, net environmental benefits seem to be insignificant as to influence the social desirability of HSR investment. This paper discusses, within a cost-benefit analysis framework, under which conditions the expected benefits could justify the investment in HSR projects.

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  • De Rus, Ginés, 2011. "The BCA of HSR Should the government invest in high speed rail infrastructure?," Working Papers 2011-12, FEDEA.
    • Handle: RePEc:fda:fdaddt:2011-12
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    1. High-speed rail: when should governments invest?
      by Dave Simpson in hand picked... and carefully sorted on 2012-01-10 15:30:32

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    Cited by:

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    3. Markus Brückner & Antonio Ciccone & Andrea Tesei, 2012. "Oil Price Shocks, Income, and Democracy," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 94(2), pages 389-399, May.
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    5. de Rus, Ginés & Socorro, M. Pilar, 2019. "Pricing and investment in alternative transport infrastructures," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 96-107.
    6. Hultkrantz, Lars & A. Krüger, Niclas & Mantalos, Panagiotis, 2014. "Risk-adjusted long-term social rates of discount for transportation infrastructure investment," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 70-81.
    7. Socorro, M. Pilar & Viecens, M. Fernanda, 2013. "The effects of airline and high speed train integration," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 160-177.
    8. Chen, Fanglin & Chen, Zhongfei, 2023. "High-speed rail and happiness," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    9. de Rus, Ginés & Socorro, M. Pilar, 2014. "Access pricing, infrastructure investment and intermodal competition," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 374-387.
    10. World Bank, 2014. "Regional Economic Impact Analysis of High Speed Rail in China : Main Report," World Bank Publications - Reports 19996, The World Bank Group.
    11. Ginés de Rus & Javier Campos & Daniel Graham & M. Pilar Socorro & Jorge Valido, 2020. "Evaluación Económica de Proyectos y Políticas de Transporte: Metodología y Aplicaciones. Parte 1: Metodología para el análisis coste-beneficio de proyectos y políticas de transporte," Working Papers 2020-11, FEDEA.
    12. Daniel Albalate & Javier Campos & Juan Luis Jiménez, 2015. "“Tourism and high speed rail in Spain: Does the AVE increase local visitors?”," IREA Working Papers 201527, University of Barcelona, Research Institute of Applied Economics, revised Dec 2015.
    13. Martín, Belén & Ortega, Emilio & de Isidro, Ágata & Iglesias-Merchan, Carlos, 2021. "Improvements in high-speed rail network environmental evaluation and planning: An assessment of accessibility gains and landscape connectivity costs in Spain," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
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    17. Ginés de Rus, 2014. "The economic evaluation of infrastructure investment. Some inescapable tradeoffs," Working Papers 2014-16, FEDEA.
    18. Salvador Bertomeu & Antonio Estache, 2016. "Unbundling Political and Economic Rationality: a Non-Parametric Approach Tested on Spain," Working Papers ECARES ECARES 2016-17, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    19. Jiang, Changmin & Zhang, Anming, 2014. "Effects of high-speed rail and airline cooperation under hub airport capacity constraint," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 33-49.
    20. Li, Xiaolong & Wu, Zongfa & Zhao, Xingchen, 2020. "Economic effect and its disparity of high speed rail in China: A study of mechanism based on synthesis control method," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 262-274.
    21. Daniel Albalate & Mattia Borsati, 2019. "“On the modal shift from motorway to high-speed rail: evidence from Italy”," IREA Working Papers 201910, University of Barcelona, Research Institute of Applied Economics, revised Jun 2019.
    22. Cascetta, Ennio & Cartenì, Armando & Henke, Ilaria & Pagliara, Francesca, 2020. "Economic growth, transport accessibility and regional equity impacts of high-speed railways in Italy: ten years ex post evaluation and future perspectives," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 412-428.
    23. Francesco De Fabiis & Alessandro Carmelo Mancuso & Fulvio Silvestri & Pierluigi Coppola, 2023. "Spatial Economic Impacts of the TEN-T Network Extension in the Adriatic and Ionian Region," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-15, March.

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