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High-speed rail and air transport competition in Western Europe: A supply-oriented perspective

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  • Dobruszkes, Frédéric
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    Abstract

    Increasingly air transport growth raises the question of its impact on the environment. Public authorities and researchers are relying more and more on high-speed trains (HSTs), whose efficiency is supposed to lead to a modal shift from airplanes. However, most transport studies focus on the evolution of demand rather than supply, although it is basically the latter that determines environmental damage. In light of this fact, this paper aims to compare the overall dynamics in the supply of air transport in Europe compared to the HST supply and to examine empirically five city-pairs. The development of high-speed rail remains limited compared to the increase of air services. For a given city-pair, the decline in the number of flights depends on various conditions, including length of the HST journey and the strategies adopted by the airlines. Some carriers reduce their supply in terms of the number of seats but increase the number of flights in order to compete more effectively with the HSTs. Moreover, the competition between low-cost airlines and HSTs should be kept in mind and re-examined in a few years.

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    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0967070X11000837
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    Article provided by Elsevier in its journal Transport Policy.

    Volume (Year): 18 (2011)
    Issue (Month): 6 (November)
    Pages: 870-879

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    Handle: RePEc:eee:trapol:v:18:y:2011:i:6:p:870-879
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    Keywords: High-speed train High-speed rail Air transport Intermodal competition Low-cost airlines;

    References listed on IDEAS
    Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:

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    1. Givoni, Moshe & Rietveld, Piet, 2009. "Airline's choice of aircraft size - Explanations and implications," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 43(5), pages 500-510, June.
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    Cited by:

    1. Takebayashi, Mikio, 2015. "Multiple hub network and high-speed railway: Connectivity, gateway, and airport leakage," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 55-64.
    2. Albalate, Daniel & Fageda, Xavier, 2016. "High speed rail and tourism: Empirical evidence from Spain," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 174-185.
    3. D’Alfonso, Tiziana & Jiang, Changmin & Bracaglia, Valentina, 2016. "Air transport and high-speed rail competition: Environmental implications and mitigation strategies," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 261-276.
    4. Tiziana D'Alfonso & Changmin Jiang & Valentina Bracaglia, 2015. "Air transport and high-speed rail competition: environmental implications and mitigation strategies," DIAG Technical Reports 2015-15, Department of Computer, Control and Management Engineering, Universita' degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza".
    5. Capozza, Claudia, 2015. "The effect of rail travel time on airline fares: first evidence from the Italian passenger market," Working Papers 1503, SIET Società Italiana di Economia dei Trasporti e della Logistica.
    6. Martín, Juan Carlos & Román, Concepción & García-Palomares, Juan Carlos & Gutiérrez, Javier, 2014. "Spatial analysis of the competitiveness of the high-speed train and air transport: The role of access to terminals in the Madrid–Barcelona corridor," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 392-408.
    7. Capozza, Claudia, 2015. "The effect of rail travel time on airline fares: first evidence from the Italian passenger market," Working Papers 15_3, SIET Società Italiana di Economia dei Trasporti e della Logistica.
    8. Kalakou, Sofia & Psaraki-Kalouptsidi, Voula & Moura, Filipe, 2015. "Future airport terminals: New technologies promise capacity gains," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 203-212.
    9. Dobruszkes, Frédéric & Dehon, Catherine & Givoni, Moshe, 2014. "Does European high-speed rail affect the current level of air services? An EU-wide analysis," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 461-475.
    10. Daniel Albalate del sol, 2015. "Evaluating HSR availability on Tourism: Evidence from Spanish Provinces and Cities," ERSA conference papers ersa15p288, European Regional Science Association.
    11. Bergantino, Angela Stefania & Capozza, Claudia & Capurso, Mauro, 2015. "The impact of open access on intra- and inter-modal rail competition. A national level analysis in Italy," Working Papers 15_2, SIET Società Italiana di Economia dei Trasporti e della Logistica.
    12. Inoue, Gaku & Ono, Masahiro & Uehara, Keita & Isono, Fumiaki, 2015. "Stated-preference analysis to estimate the domestic transport demand following the future entry of LCCs and the inauguration of the Linear Chuo Shinkansen in Japan," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 199-217.
    13. Pellegrini, Paola & Rodriguez, Joaquin, 2013. "Single European Sky and Single European Railway Area: A system level analysis of air and rail transportation," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 64-86.
    14. D’Alfonso, Tiziana & Jiang, Changmin & Bracaglia, Valentina, 2015. "Would competition between air transport and high-speed rail benefit environment and social welfare?," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 118-137.
    15. Yang, Hangjun & Zhang, Anming, 2012. "Effects of high-speed rail and air transport competition on prices, profits and welfare," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 46(10), pages 1322-1333.
    16. Takebayashi, Mikio, 2016. "How could the collaboration between airport and high speed rail affect the market?," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 277-286.
    17. Bergantino, Angela S. & Capozza, Claudia & Capurso, Mauro, 2015. "The impact of open access on intra- and inter-modal rail competition. A national level analysis in Italy," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 77-86.
    18. Albers, Sascha & Heuermann, Caroline, 2012. "Competitive dynamics across industries: An analysis of inter-industry competition in German passenger transportation," Working Paper Series 109, University of Cologne, Department of Business Policy and Logistics.
    19. Xia, Wenyi & Zhang, Anming, 2016. "High-speed rail and air transport competition and cooperation: A vertical differentiation approach," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 456-481.
    20. Zhang, Qiong & Yang, Hangjun & Wang, Qiang, 2017. "Impact of high-speed rail on China’s Big Three airlines," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 77-85.
    21. Capozza, Claudia, 2016. "The effect of rail travel time on airline fares: First evidence from the Italian passenger market," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 6(C), pages 18-24.

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