IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jotrge/v19y2011i4p689-704.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The impacts of high-speed trains on British economic geography: a study of the UK’s InterCity 125/225 and its effects

Author

Listed:
  • Chen, Chia-Lin
  • Hall, Peter

Abstract

The arrival of high-speed trains (HSTs) leads to unprecedented time-space effects, potentially assisting face-to-face contacts in knowledge-generating process, yet its wider spatial-economic impacts are still open to debate. This research attempts to fill in this gap with empirical evidence by studying the inter-regional impacts of upgraded British InterCity 125/225 on British economic geography over 30years. The six study routes of London-outbound trains serving major railways stations in 26 local authorities were selected as units of analysis, with the observation of differential effects both between HSTs and non-HSTs towns and among each group of towns, to understand time-space effects of InterCity 125/225 whose potential impacts on local economic strength and knowledge intensive development. The key findings suggest that the differential HST effects on British economic geography could be classified into three influential zones, namely 1-h, 2-h, and over-2-h towns. HST has had substantial and demonstrable effects in aiding this transition within a 2-h travel limit of London, thus helping to generate renewed economic growth, but that the effects have not been automatic or universal. Regarding future British HST policy, the implications arising from this study is that cities connected to a new HST could seize opportunities which non-HST cities will not be able to do so, but this is not a zero-sum situation. Instead, it involves a national strategy to develop a hierarchical network with HST between London and key regional hubs, well integrated at these hubs with intra-regional transport systems. This indicates a strong case for a finer-grained and deeper probing analysis at an intra-regional level of the potential for rail improvement as an agent of change in city-region development. We hope to report further on this in a subsequent paper.

Suggested Citation

  • Chen, Chia-Lin & Hall, Peter, 2011. "The impacts of high-speed trains on British economic geography: a study of the UK’s InterCity 125/225 and its effects," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 689-704.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jotrge:v:19:y:2011:i:4:p:689-704
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2010.08.010
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0966692310001304
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2010.08.010?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Diego Puga, 2008. "Agglomeration and cross-border infrastructure," Working Papers 2008-06, Instituto Madrileño de Estudios Avanzados (IMDEA) Ciencias Sociales.
    2. K Spiekermann & M Wegener, 1994. "The Shrinking Continent: New Time—Space Maps of Europe," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 21(6), pages 653-673, December.
    3. Sands, Brian D., 1993. "The Development Effects of High-Speed Rail Stations and Implications for California," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt13t478sf, University of California Transportation Center.
    4. Diego Puga, 2002. "European regional policies in light of recent location theories," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 2(4), pages 373-406, October.
    5. Eric von Hippel, 1994. ""Sticky Information" and the Locus of Problem Solving: Implications for Innovation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 40(4), pages 429-439, April.
    6. Roger Vickerman & Klaus Spiekermann & Michael Wegener, 1999. "Accessibility and Economic Development in Europe," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(1), pages 1-15.
    7. Åke Andersson, 1985. "Creativity And Regional Development," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(1), pages 5-20, January.
    8. Audretsch, David B, 1998. "Agglomeration and the Location of Innovative Activity," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 14(2), pages 18-29, Summer.
    9. Campos, Javier & de Rus, Ginés, 2009. "Some stylized facts about high-speed rail: A review of HSR experiences around the world," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 19-28, January.
    10. Audretsch, David B & Feldman, Maryann P, 1996. "R&D Spillovers and the Geography of Innovation and Production," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(3), pages 630-640, June.
    11. Moshe Givoni, 2006. "Development and Impact of the Modern High‐speed Train: A Review," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(5), pages 593-611, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Meng, Xuechen & Lin, Shanlang & Zhu, Xiaochuan, 2018. "The resource redistribution effect of high-speed rail stations on the economic growth of neighbouring regions: Evidence from China," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 178-191.
    2. Dirk Czarnitzki & Hanna Hottenrott, 2009. "Are Local Milieus The Key To Innovation Performance?," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(1), pages 81-112, February.
    3. Fratesi, Ugo, 2007. "The Spatial Diffusion of Innovations and the Evolution of Regional Disparities," INVESTIGACIONES REGIONALES - Journal of REGIONAL RESEARCH, Asociación Española de Ciencia Regional, issue 11, pages 131-160.
    4. Kim, Hyojin & Sultana, Selima & Weber, Joe, 2018. "A geographic assessment of the economic development impact of Korean high-speed rail stations," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 127-137.
    5. Shen, Yu & de Abreu e Silva, João & Martínez, Luis Miguel, 2014. "Assessing High-Speed Rail’s impacts on land cover change in large urban areas based on spatial mixed logit methods: a case study of Madrid Atocha railway station from 1990 to 2006," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 184-196.
    6. Chou, Jui-Sheng & Chien, Ya-Ling & Nguyen, Ngoc-Mai & Truong, Dinh-Nhat, 2018. "Pricing policy of floating ticket fare for riding high speed rail based on time-space compression," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 179-192.
    7. Jeremy R. L. Howells, 2002. "Tacit Knowledge, Innovation and Economic Geography," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 39(5-6), pages 871-884, May.
    8. Chia-Lin Chen & Peter Hall, 2011. "The Wider Spatial-Economic Impacts of High-Speed Trains: A Comparative Case Study of the Lille and Manchester Sub-Regions," ERSA conference papers ersa10p335, European Regional Science Association.
    9. Jia, Shanming & Zhou, Chunyu & Qin, Chenglin, 2017. "No difference in effect of high-speed rail on regional economic growth based on match effect perspective?," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 144-157.
    10. Beibei Guo & Jinchuan Ke, 2020. "The Impacts of High-speed Rail on Sustainable Economic Development: Evidence from the Central Part of China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-19, March.
    11. Jun‐Teng Ma & Tie‐Ying Liu, 2022. "Does the high‐speed rail network improve economic growth?," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 101(1), pages 183-208, February.
    12. Roy Thurik & David Audretsch & Isabel Grilo, 2012. "Globalization, entrepreneurship and the region," Scales Research Reports H201201, EIM Business and Policy Research.
    13. Chandra, Shailesh & Vadali, Sharada, 2014. "Evaluating accessibility impacts of the proposed America 2050 high-speed rail corridor for the Appalachian Region," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 28-46.
    14. Fan, Xiaomin & Xu, Yingzhi, 2023. "Does high-speed railway promote urban innovation? Evidence from China," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    15. Daniel Albalate & Germá Bel, 2015. "La experiencia internacional en alta velocidad ferroviaria," Working Papers 2015-02, FEDEA.
    16. Roper, Stephen & Hewitt-Dundas, Nola & Love, James H., 2004. "An ex ante evaluation framework for the regional benefits of publicly supported R&D projects," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 487-509, April.
    17. Sandy Dall’erba & Julie Le Gallo, 2007. "The Impact of EU Regional Support on Growth and Employment," Czech Journal of Economics and Finance (Finance a uver), Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, vol. 57(7-8), pages 324-340, September.
    18. Sandy Dall'erba & Julie Le Gallo, 2008. "Regional convergence and the impact of European structural funds over 1989–1999: A spatial econometric analysis," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 87(2), pages 219-244, June.
    19. Deng, Taotao & Wang, Dandan & Hu, Yukun & Liu, Shuang, 2020. "Did high-speed railway cause urban space expansion? ——Empirical evidence from China's prefecture-level cities," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    20. Marie Delaplace & Sylvie Bazin & christophe Beckerich & Corinne Blanquart, 2011. "High speed Rail service and local economic development, a review," ERSA conference papers ersa10p167, European Regional Science Association.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jotrge:v:19:y:2011:i:4:p:689-704. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-transport-geography .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.