IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/anresc/v31y1997i2p189-215.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The full cost of high-speed rail: an engineering approach

Author

Listed:
  • David Gillen

    (Institute of Transportation Studies, Rm. 109 McLaughlin Hall, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA)

  • David Levinson

    (Institute of Transportation Studies, Rm. 109 McLaughlin Hall, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA)

  • Jean Michel Mathieu

    (4, Chemin de Coute, F-94500 Haloge, France)

  • Adib Kanafani

    (Institute of Transportation Studies, Rm. 109 McLaughlin Hall, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA)

Abstract

This paper examines the full costs, defined as the sum of private and social costs, of a high-speed rail system proposed for a corridor connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco in California. The full costs include infrastructure, fleet capital and operating expenses, the time users spend on the system, and the social costs of externalities, such as noise, pollution, and accidents. Comparing these full costs to those of other competing modes contributes to the evaluation of the feasibility of high-speed rail in the corridor. The paper concludes that high-speed rail is significantly more costly than expanding existing air service, and marginally more expensive than auto travel. This suggests that high-speed rail is better positioned to serve shorter distance markets where it competes with auto travel than longer distance markets where it substitutes for air.

Suggested Citation

  • David Gillen & David Levinson & Jean Michel Mathieu & Adib Kanafani, 1997. "The full cost of high-speed rail: an engineering approach," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 31(2), pages 189-215.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:anresc:v:31:y:1997:i:2:p:189-215
    Note: Received: May 1996 / Accepted in revised form: December 1996
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.de/link/service/journals/00168/papers/7031002/70310189.pdf
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted
    File URL: http://link.springer.de/link/service/journals/00168/papers/7031002/70310189.ps.gz
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Noor, Bashar Abdal & Sirong, Yi & Alam Kazmi, Syed Hasnain & Abid, Malik Muneeb, 2016. "Modeling for Operating Expenses and Time Consumption of High-Speed Railway (HSR)," MPRA Paper 73207, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Chen, Zhenhua & Xue, Junbo & Rose, Adam Z. & Haynes, Kingsley E., 2016. "The impact of high-speed rail investment on economic and environmental change in China: A dynamic CGE analysis," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 232-245.
    3. Wang, Kun & Xia, Wenyi & Zhang, Anming, 2017. "Should China further expand its high-speed rail network? Consider the low-cost carrier factor," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 105-120.
    4. Levinson, David M., 2012. "Accessibility impacts of high-speed rail," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 288-291.
    5. Concepción Román, 2008. "Competencia intermodal en el corredor Madrid-Zaragoza-Barcelona ante la introducción del tren de alta velocidad," Economic Reports 11-08, FEDEA.
    6. Jiang, Changmin & Zhang, Anming, 2014. "Effects of high-speed rail and airline cooperation under hub airport capacity constraint," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 33-49.
    7. De Rus, Ginés, 2011. "The BCA of HSR: Should the Government Invest in High Speed Rail Infrastructure?," Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 2(1), pages 1-28, January.
    8. Adler, Nicole & Pels, Eric & Nash, Chris, 2010. "High-speed rail and air transport competition: Game engineering as tool for cost-benefit analysis," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 44(7), pages 812-833, August.
    9. de Rus, Ginés & Socorro, M. Pilar, 2019. "Pricing and investment in alternative transport infrastructures," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 96-107.
    10. Michael B. Charles & Neal Ryan & Robbert A. Kivits, 2012. "Moving towards sustainable intercity transport: a case study of high-speed rail in Australia," International Journal of Sustainable Development, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 15(1/2), pages 125-147.
    11. Nicole Adler & Chris Nash & Eric Pels, 2008. "High-Speed Rail & Air Transport Competition," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 08-103/3, Tinbergen Institute.
    12. Chester, Mikhail V. & Ryerson, Megan S., 2014. "Grand challenges for high-speed rail environmental assessment in the United States," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 15-26.
    13. Mariko Utsunomiya & Kenichi Hodota, 2011. "Financial lessons from Asian experience in constructing and operating high speed train networks," Transportation, Springer, vol. 38(5), pages 753-764, September.
    14. de Rus Ginés & Socorro M. Pilar, 2017. "Planning, Evaluation and Financing of Transport Infrastructures: Rethinking the Basics," Review of Network Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 16(2), pages 143-160, June.
    15. Ryerson, Megan S. & Kim, Amy M., 2018. "A drive for better air service: How air service imbalances across neighboring regions integrate air and highway demands," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 114(PA), pages 237-255.
    16. Delucchi, Mark A. & McCubbin, Donald R., 2010. "External Costs of Transport in the U.S," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt13n8v8gq, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    17. Isabelle Laplace & Nathalie Lenoir & Isabel Rebello & Francisco Pita & Antonio Valadares, 2005. "Intermodality and passenger transport," Post-Print hal-01021742, HAL.
    18. Mark Delucchi & Don McCubbin, 2011. "External Costs of Transport in the United States," Chapters, in: André de Palma & Robin Lindsey & Emile Quinet & Roger Vickerman (ed.), A Handbook of Transport Economics, chapter 15, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    19. Narayan, Sundar, 2016. "Solar-Powered Vactrain - A Preliminary Analysis," 57th Transportation Research Forum (51st CTRF) Joint Conference, Toronto, Ontario, May 1-4, 2016 319304, Transportation Research Forum.
    20. Campos, Javier & de Rus, Gines & Barron, Ignacio, 2007. "A review of HSR experiences around the world," MPRA Paper 12397, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    21. Wang, Jiaoe & Du, Delin & Huang, Jie, 2020. "Inter-city connections in China: High-speed train vs. inter-city coach," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    22. Cartenì, Armando & Pariota, Luigi & Henke, Ilaria, 2017. "Hedonic value of high-speed rail services: Quantitative analysis of the students’ domestic tourist attractiveness of the main Italian cities," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 348-365.
    23. 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.
    24. Campos, Javier & de Rus, Gines & Barron, Iñaki, 2007. "The cost of building and operating a new high speed rail line," MPRA Paper 12396, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    25. Talebian, Ahmadreza & Zou, Bo & Peivandi, Ahmad, 2018. "Capacity allocation in vertically integrated rail systems: A bargaining approach," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 167-191.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • R40 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - General
    • R42 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Government and Private Investment Analysis; Road Maintenance; Transportation Planning
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:spr:anresc:v:31:y:1997:i:2:p:189-215. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.