somestylizedfactsabouthighspeedrailaroundthewor.docVIP

Some stylized facts about high speed rail around the world * Javier CAMPOS (University of Las Palmas, Spain)** [jcampos@daea.ulpgc.es] Ginés DE RUS (University of Las Palmas, Spain) [gderus@daea.ulpgc.es] Ignacio BARRóN (UIC, Paris) [barron@uic.asso.fr] MAY, 2007 Abstract After collecting information on 166 high speed rail (HSR) projects across the world, this paper examines some of the most relevant empirical issues related to development of this mode in recent years. We firstly discuss the economic definition of HSR, trying to identify its different development and exploitation models. Our next step consists on providing what could be considered a representative cost of building high-speed infrastructure. A similar analysis is carried out regarding operating, maintenance and external costs. We finally study current demand and its projections, and try to draw some patterns about its future evolution, particularly in the 2020 horizon. Keywords: High-Speed Railways, Costs, Demand JEL Nos.: L92, L97 1. Introduction High Speed Railways (HSR) is currently considered one of the most significant technological breakthroughs in passenger transportation in the latter half of the 20th century. At the beginning of 2006 there were about 9,000 kilometres of new high speed lines in operation around the world and, in total (that is, including upgraded conventional tracks), more than 20,000 kilometres of the worldwide rail network was devoted to provide high speed services to passengers willing to pay for a lower travel time and a quality improvement in rail transport. Just in Japan, were the concept of bullet trains was born in 1964, 100 million passenger-trips have been performed per year during the last 40 years, whereas in Europe traffic figures have been steadily growing since 1981 by an annual percentage rate of 2.6, recently reaching an accumulated total of 1.5 billion. Nowadays, there are high speed rail services in more than 15 countries, and the network is st