The accessibility impact of a new High-Speed Rail line in the UK – a preliminary analysis of winners and losers

Héctor S. Martínez Sánchez-Mateos and Moshe Givoni

Journal of Transport Geography, 2012, vol. 25, issue C, 105-114

Abstract: This paper analyses changes in accessibility that might result from a new High-Speed Rail (HSR) line in the UK. A proposal for such a line put forward by Network Rail in 2009 is used as the basis for the analysis. Using travel time to London as the main benchmark to measure accessibility of a station on the current (conventional) and future (high-speed) rail networks the paper examines the likely winners and losers from the construction of the new line. The results show that the accessibility benefits from the proposed line are relatively limited in terms of geographic spread and that many cities close to it would not see any travel time reductions on journeys to London, thus will not see any accessibility benefits in this respect. For such places, this will translate to a relative reduction in the accessibility to London, when compared to other locations, and thus to potentially adverse socioeconomic implications. The paper concludes by arguing that any examination of a HSR line must consider a wider geographic area than just the cities, and especially the stations, on the line and it therefore must give due consideration to integration between transport networks, and especially between the high-speed and conventional rail networks. Based on the current analysis, the paper concludes that the case for a HSR line in the UK from a regional accessibility perspective is questionable.

Keywords: High-Speed Rail; Accessibility; Conventional rail; Railway station (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (56)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0966692311001463

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jotrge:v:25:y:2012:i:c:p:105-114

DOI: 10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2011.09.004

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Transport Geography is currently edited by Frank Witlox

More articles in Journal of Transport Geography from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().