Research on High-Speed Railway Pricing and Financial Sustainability

With the steady increase of corporate system reform in the railway transportation industry, high-speed railways have accelerated their steps toward marketization, and the market competition they face has become increasingly fierce. In this context, enterprises need to make quick adjustments to new changes in order to seize the market share, obtain stable ticket income, and eventually, achieve financial sustainability while ensuring the healthy development of high-speed railways. Thus, it is particularly important to determine a reasonable ticket price. While considering supply and demand, market competition, and passenger utility, this study constructs a model of the passenger flow sharing rate and applies it to modeling the optimal ticket price for high-speed railways, taking the Beijing–Shanghai High-speed Railway as an example for calculating this model. Using the results calculated, this study analyzes the influence of the optimal ticket price on the financial sustainability of the enterprise through use of the evaluation system of financial sustainability established above. The results show that the existing price for a train ticket from of Beijing to Shanghai is not the optimal one, and there is still room for a price increase; the ticket price has an impact on financial sustainability by affecting corporate operating income and cash flow. The study provides a method for formulating the optimal ticket price for high-speed railway travel and enriches the research on the financial sustainability of high-speed railways.