IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ris/adbiwp/0951.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

High-Speed Rail as a New Mode of Intercity Passenger Transportation

Author

Listed:
  • Chao, Eugene

    (Asian Development Bank Institute)

  • Vuchic, Vukan R.

    (Asian Development Bank Institute)

  • Vashchukov, Aleksandr

    (Asian Development Bank Institute)

Abstract

High-speed rail is a new mode of intercity passenger transportation. We review the history of high-speed rail development of the United States (US) and compare it with that of peer countries. With the rapid progress of HSR and the successful competition with cars and air travel between medium and long distances (150 and 1,200 km), HSR has an increasing role in intercity travel worldwide. Decision makers, transportation planners, system designers, and operators as well as political leaders need to understand HSR’s operational boundaries for intercity travel to determine which HSR will outperform the others and under which conditions. Our analysis uses a simple time–distance factor to clarify the dominance. To confirm the validity of HSR in intercity passenger rail services, a comparison with the external competition of car and air travel is necessary. Meanwhile, an internal examination of operational performance considering sophisticated variables is imperative. Based on numerous HSR projects, we select four interrelated trade-off elements: the passenger access time and travel time associated with the total on-line travel time, the area coverage associated with the station density, the station density associated with speed, and the transit unit size, frequency, and loading factor associated with the independent line capacity. After examining the interrelations and trade-offs, we present a practical case study of one of the major US economic corridors—the Northeast Corridor. The case study explores the geospatial metadata and concludes that three major system efficiency challenges exist; therefore, it provides corresponding engineering measures to convert an independent dead-end terminal into an integrated through-running station, which are the priority for converting Amtrak, the US national rail service, into an accelerated HSR service. It is time to renew the government’s interest in paying systematic attention to the comprehensive effect of HSR.

Suggested Citation

  • Chao, Eugene & Vuchic, Vukan R. & Vashchukov, Aleksandr, 2019. "High-Speed Rail as a New Mode of Intercity Passenger Transportation," ADBI Working Papers 951, Asian Development Bank Institute.
    • Handle: RePEc:ris:adbiwp:0951
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/publication/503496/adbi-wp951.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Vukan R. Vuchic, 1969. "Rapid Transit Interstation Spacings for Maximum Number of Passengers," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 3(3), pages 214-232, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hugo M. Repolho & António P. Antunes & Richard L. Church, 2013. "Optimal Location of Railway Stations: The Lisbon-Porto High-Speed Rail Line," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 47(3), pages 330-343, August.
    2. Peng, Ya-Ting & Li, Zhi-Chun & Choi, Keechoo, 2017. "Transit-oriented development in an urban rail transportation corridor," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 269-290.
    3. Konrad Steiner & Stefan Irnich, 2018. "Schedule-Based Integrated Intercity Bus Line Planning via Branch-and-Cut," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(4), pages 882-897, August.
    4. Tirachini, Alejandro, 2014. "The economics and engineering of bus stops: Spacing, design and congestion," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 37-57.
    5. Tian, Qiong & Huang, Hai-Jun & Yang, Hai, 2007. "Equilibrium properties of the morning peak-period commuting in a many-to-one mass transit system," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 41(6), pages 616-631, July.
    6. Cortina, Mélanie & Chiabaut, Nicolas & Leclercq, Ludovic, 2023. "Fostering synergy between transit and Autonomous Mobility-on-Demand systems: A dynamic modeling approach for the morning commute problem," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    7. Roy, Sandeepan & Maji, Avijit, 2019. "A Station Location Identification Model for an Integrated Interoperable High-Speed Rail System," ADBI Working Papers 956, Asian Development Bank Institute.
    8. López-de-los-Mozos, M.C. & Mesa, Juan A. & Schöbel, Anita, 2017. "A general approach for the location of transfer points on a network with a trip covering criterion and mixed distances," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 260(1), pages 108-121.
    9. Sang, Jinyan & Li, Zhi-Chun & Lam, William H.K. & Wong, S.C., 2019. "Design of build-operate-transfer contract for integrated rail and property development with uncertainty in future urban population," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 36-66.
    10. Langevin, André & Mbaraga, Pontien & Campbell, James F., 1996. "Continuous approximation models in freight distribution: An overview," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 163-188, June.
    11. Tian, Qiong & Liu, Peng & Ong, Ghim Ping & Huang, Hai-Jun, 2021. "Morning commuting pattern and crowding pricing in a many-to-one public transit system with heterogeneous users," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    12. Wang, Judith Y. T. & Yang, Hai & Lindsey, Robin, 2004. "Locating and pricing park-and-ride facilities in a linear monocentric city with deterministic mode choice," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 38(8), pages 709-731, September.
    13. Perea, Federico & Mesa, Juan A. & Laporte, Gilbert, 2014. "Adding a new station and a road link to a road–rail network in the presence of modal competition," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 1-16.
    14. Konrad Steiner & Stefan Irnich, 2016. "Schedule-based integrated inter-city bus line planning via branch-and-cut," Working Papers 1608, Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz.
    15. Luigi Moccia & Duncan W. Allen & Eric C. Bruun, 2018. "A technology selection and design model of a semi-rapid transit line," Public Transport, Springer, vol. 10(3), pages 455-497, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    high-speed rail; regional connectivity; comprehensive effect; system performance; operational measure;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L92 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Railroads and Other Surface Transportation
    • R41 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Transportation: Demand, Supply, and Congestion; Travel Time; Safety and Accidents; Transportation Noise
    • R53 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Regional Government Analysis - - - Public Facility Location Analysis; Public Investment and Capital Stock

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ris:adbiwp:0951. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ADB Institute (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/adbinjp.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.