The Impact of High Speed Trains on Socio-Economic Activity

This paper reports on work undertaken for the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) that was designed to determine the impact of the London-Paris-Brussels-Amsterdam-Cologne high speed rail network on socioeconomic development. A detailed literature review has been undertaken which has covered computable general equilibrium models, accessibility studies and ex-post monitoring studies. This review indicates that there are theoretical reasons to expect high speed rail to have socio-economic benefits over and above those measured in conventional cost-benefit analyses, largely due to the promotion of more competitive land and labor markets and of agglomeration economies. However, at the practical level these net benefits are difficult to measure, as they may be swamped by external factors, although gross effects are easier to discern. In the empirical part of this paper data on economic activity rates, population changes, planning consents and land values are collated and related to changes in travel patterns and accessibility. Detailed case studies are provided of two types of location in southern England. The first are locations with direct access to long established high speed services for which ex-post analysis is possible. An example is Ashford in Kent. The second are locations where high speed services are being planned, pre-opening impacts are expected and ex-ante analysis can be undertaken. Examples include St Pancras (central London), Stratford (East London) and Ebbsfleet (Kent). The case studies confirm the results of the literature review namely that the wider economic benefits of high speed rail are difficult to detect, as they are swamped by external factors, but are likely to be larger in more central locations such as St Pancras than more peripheral locations such as Ashford.

• Corporate Authors:

  World Conference on Transport Research Society

  Secretariat, 14 Avenue Berthelot
  69363 Lyon cedex 07,   France 
• Authors:
  • Preston, John
  • Wall, Graham
• Conference:
  • 11th World Conference on Transport Research
  • Location: Berkeley CA, United States
  • Date: 2007-6-24 to 2007-6-28
• Publication Date: 2007

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: CD-ROM
• Features: Figures; Maps; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 24p
• Monograph Title: 11th World Conference on Transport Research

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Accessibility; Benefit cost analysis; Economic development; High speed ground transportation; High speed rail; Land values; Socioeconomic development; Socioeconomic factors
• Uncontrolled Terms: Agglomeration
• Geographic Terms: England; France; Germany; Netherlands
• Subject Areas: Economics; Highways; I10: Economics and Administration;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01122222
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Feb 19 2009 2:43PM