High Speed Rail and Access Transit Networks


Book Description

This book examines the promise of High Speed Rail (HSR) technologies to win market share from carbon-intensive air transport through the strategic optimization of rail productivity and efficiency. While the positive impacts of HSR at both urban and long-distance levels are well-documented, this resource focuses on what has been a challenging area for HSR deployment historically: the integration of HSR accessibility at the regional level. The author provides tools and methods to better measure the feasibility of integrating regional HSR with existing transport networks, and includes in-depth case studies to demonstrate the contributions of expanded high speed rail access on sustainable development. Shares options for maximizing efficiency and effectiveness of high speed rail transport; Compares strategies for integrating urban, long-distance, and regional high speed rail transport; Explores new dimensions of high speed rail deployment b y linking transit networks with increased regional accessibility.




The Geography of Transport Systems


Book Description

Mobility is fundamental to economic and social activities such as commuting, manufacturing, or supplying energy. Each movement has an origin, a potential set of intermediate locations, a destination, and a nature which is linked with geographical attributes. Transport systems composed of infrastructures, modes and terminals are so embedded in the socio-economic life of individuals, institutions and corporations that they are often invisible to the consumer. This is paradoxical as the perceived invisibility of transportation is derived from its efficiency. Understanding how mobility is linked with geography is main the purpose of this book. The third edition of The Geography of Transport Systems has been revised and updated to provide an overview of the spatial aspects of transportation. This text provides greater discussion of security, energy, green logistics, as well as new and updated case studies, a revised content structure, and new figures. Each chapter covers a specific conceptual dimension including networks, modes, terminals, freight transportation, urban transportation and environmental impacts. A final chapter contains core methodologies linked with transport geography such as accessibility, spatial interactions, graph theory and Geographic Information Systems for transportation (GIS-T). This book provides a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the field, with a broad overview of its concepts, methods, and areas of application. The accompanying website for this text contains a useful additional material, including digital maps, PowerPoint slides, databases, and links to further reading and websites. The website can be accessed at: http://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans This text is an essential resource for undergraduates studying transport geography, as well as those interest in economic and urban geography, transport planning and engineering.




China's High-Speed Rail Development


Book Description

Over the past decade, China has built 25,000 km of dedicated highspeed railway—more than the rest of the world combined. What can we learn from this remarkable experience? China’s High-Speed Rail Development examines the Chinese experience to draw lessons for countries considering investing in high-speed rail. The report scrutinizes the planning and delivery mechanisms that enabled the rapid construction of the high-speed rail system. It highlights the role of long-term planning, consistent plan execution, and a joint venture structure that ensures active participation of provincial and local governments in project planning and financing. Traffic on China’s high-speed trains has grown to 1.7 billion passengers a year. The study examines the characteristics of the markets for which high-speed rail is competitive in China. It discusses the pricing and service design considerations that go into making high-speed rail services competitive with other modes and factors such as good urban connectivity that make the service attractive to customers. One of the most remarkable aspects of the Chinese experience is the rapid pace of high-quality construction. The report looks at the role of strong capacity development within and cooperation among China Railway Corporation, rail manufacturers, universities, research institutions, laboratories, and engineering centers that allowed for rapid technological advancement and localization of technology. It describes the project delivery structures and incentives for delivering quality and timely results. Finally, the report analyzes the financial and economic sustainability of the investment in high-speed rail. It finds that a developing country can price high-speed rail services affordably and still achieve financial viability, but this requires very high passenger density. Economic viability similarly depends on high passenger density.




Wired and Wireless Seamless Access Systems for Public Infrastructure


Book Description

This innovative resource presents comprehensive and detailed information on wired and wireless seamless access systems consisting of various types of transmission media including microwave, millimeter-wave, THz wave, and lightwave in fibers. This book explains heterogenous networks consisting of various transmission media with many media converters. Applications of seamless access networks for public infrastructure such as airports, railways and information and communications systems are described. The book focuses on two important features of seamless access systems, including high-capacity transmission capacity limitation due to economics as well as physics, and low-latency transmission. Latency has significant impact on applications including financial transactions and online gaming. Low-latency data is very important for self-driving cars as well. This book presents the concept of sensor-over-fiber, where many antenna units are connected through optical fibers to gather sensor responses coherently. This book provides possible scenarios of future mobile networks which have many antenna units and opto-electric device technologies. Readers will learn about basic and state-of-the-art signal estimation techniques and concludes with exploration of social issues on future information and communication (ICT) infrastructure.




Handbook on High-Speed Rail and Quality of Life


Book Description

Handbook on High-Speed Rail and Quality of Life outlines global experiences of high-speed rail development, including its construction, impacts, and planning, with a special focus on countries that are planning implementation in the coming decade. High-speed rail infrastructure can bring considerable socioeconomic benefits that cannot be captured through econometric modeling alone. Thus, analysis of the true impacts requires a scalar as well as a temporal lens. The studies in this handbook discuss transport infrastructure projects of varying geographic scale and describe the underlying complexities of developing an infrastructure system while focusing on the aspects that can enhance quality of life. The cases, concepts, and ideas presented in this handbook were discussed and refined during a conference and seminar series held at the Asian Development Bank Institute in Tokyo and special sessions on transport and quality of life at the 15th World Conference on Transport Research at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay in Mumbai. The special sessions were jointly organized by the Asian Development Bank Institute and World Conference on Transport Research Society Special Interest Group A4, "High-Speed Rail: Policy, Investment, and Impacts". The conference and special sessions highlighted critical issues and delivered key messages on the broad research on high-speed rail and quality of life.




Economic Analysis of High Speed Rail in Europe


Book Description

Este informe pretende contribuir al análisis económico de los proyectos de inversión en alta velocidad ferroviaria. La evaluación económica de proyectos puede ayudar a los gobiernos a formarse una idea más precisa sobre los beneficios esperados de distintas líneas de actuación que absorben dinero público para resolver un mismo problema de transporte. En este informe se trata de determinar las circunstancias en las que la inversión en alta velocidad es socialmente deseable y en que otras la sociedad gana posponiendo la inversión. La red de alta velocidad puede construirse gradualmente, añadiendo nuevas líneas una vez que la evaluación económica muestra una rentabilidad social positiva.




High Speed Rail


Book Description

This document sets out the government's initial preferences for phase two of HS2, extending the route north of Birmingham to Manchester and Leeds. HS2 is a once in-a-generation opportunity to transform Britain's connectivity, capacity and competitiveness. It will be a national asset, slashing journey times and improving services between our cities and regions. It will also free up substantial space on the existing railway. Part I of this document sets out more of the background to the HS2 project. It describes in greater detail the role that high speed rail has to play in meeting the future transport and economic needs of this country. Part 2 moves on to discuss the detail of the government's initial preferred route, station and depot options for phase two. It looks at the western and eastern sections in turn, summarising each of the initial preferred route and station options - running northwards from Birmingham and having five stops at: Manchester; Manchester Airport; Toton in the East Midlands; Sheffield; and Leeds. It also includes more details on how high speed trains would be able to continue to destinations such as Liverpool, Runcorn, Wigan, Durham, Newcastle, Glasgow and Edinburgh through connections with the existing rail network. It then explains the government's position on Heathrow. Part 3 covers the next steps for the project. The government has an extensive programme of collaboration and partnership working with key stakeholders to take the initial options presented in this document forward




Territorial Implications of High Speed Rail


Book Description

High Speed Rail's (HSR) main objective is to attract air passengers between big metropolitan areas however the main territorial implications in many cases occur not in these metropolitan areas but in the intermediate cities. These implications open up new spatial planning possibilities such as decentralization, new regional centres and urban renewal projects. This book presents the experience of 20 years of HSR in Spain including some explicit information, arguments and conclusions derived from HSR in other European Countries. It debates the HSR territorial implications at three scales: national, regional and local, thus being of interest for strategic debates at those scales, such as the decision of new national lines, the pros and cons of deviating the line to reach minor intermediate cities or the selection of precise locations for new stations and the development projects in their surroundings. Comparisons with the recent changes in accessibility, spatial distribution of population and activities, are made with mobility for working purposes and with the characteristics of the HSR passengers. This book also examines the actions, strategies and urban projects that medium size cities can use to make best use of HSR opportunities, synthesising the experience of HSR medium cities in Spain and Europe. The book's conclusions will be of interest, over and above scholars, to transport infrastructure decision makers, city and regional planners and managers, and transport companies.




Transport Investment and Economic Development


Book Description

This book makes a major contribution to the debate and is directed at researchers, decision makers and students who are interested in the wider economic development impacts of transport.




Spatial Implications and Planning Criteria for High-Speed Rail Cities and Regions


Book Description

Spatial Implications and Planning Criteria for High-speed Rail Cities and Regions evaluates the varied experiences that HSR systems have brought about to different station-cities and their regional territories around the world, with an eye towards better future planning and policy of such systems. This edited volume draws from examples of high-speed rail operations in different cities in Europe and Asia to depict the various impacts of this major transportation infrastructure. It attempts to distinguish the short- and long-term impacts described in the literature, classifying them into regional and inter-urban effects, urban effects, and wider economic impacts. Planning challenges appear at two major points: 1) during the initial planning stage that includes the route and location of stations; and 2) during the development process that follows. The case studies in the book concentrate on a variety of topics from the impact of high-speed rail on population growth in some station-cities, to the regional economic impacts that an HSR system can bring about to the larger territories it passes through, to the potential of station-cities to better attract firms, or to experience increases in tourism and commerce. They also assess planning strategies and experiences from station-cities to draw lessons for future HSR planning policies. The Chapters in this book were originally published in a special issue of European Planning Studies.




Recent Books