Andrés López Pita 1. Introduction to an evaluation of the impact of high-speed rail infrastructure in Europe.

Transcription

1 Andrés López Pita 1 Introduction to an evaluation of the impact of high-speed rail infrastructure in Europe. Andrés López-Pita and Francesc Robusté CENIT (Center for Transportation Innovation) Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (Technical University of Catalonia) Jordi Girona, 1-3, Mòdul B Barcelona (Spain) Tel: , Fax , andres.lopez-pita.es

2 Andrés López Pita 2 Abstract The first high-speed line in Europe entered service in years have elapsed since then and new infrastructure of similar features has been incorporated into the so-called new high performance network, currently formed by 3,000 km of line. The aim of this paper is to provide an introduction to evaluating the impact of high-speed rail infrastructure in Europe.

3 Andrés López Pita 3 1. INTRODUCTION The new railway infrastructure network, suitable for running high-speed trainsets, first appeared in Europe in September 1981 with the opening of the first section of the new line between Paris and Lyon. Since then, and at an average rate of 150 km/year, new high performance sections have gradually been incorporated into this network, the current network in operation being made up of just under 3,000 km (Table 1). Observation of the information contained in Table 1 shows that the development of the high-speed network has, in terms of its extension, varied according to the country considered. France has 1,506 km (50%); Germany, 691 km (23%); Spain, 471 km (16%); Italy, 249 km (8.5%); and Belgium, 71 km (2.5%). Existing differences in the operating system adopted for each line can also be appreciated. Passenger and freight trains coexist on some routes. On other lines, traffic is exclusively reserved for high-speed trains. Two decades after the first commercial service, runs are made at maximum speeds that clearly exceeds the 200 km/h. We believe it to be of interest to analyse the impact of the European high-speed network, on the European transport system, based on an overall consideration of some of the variable factors that might be representative of its effect on the transport system. The analysis shall consider the influence of new rail infrastructure on the following areas: (1) Modification of passenger traffic modal distribution in corridors affected by the construction of high-speed lines. (2) Increase in intermodality by using more than one mode of transport in any given trip. (3) Reduction in the environmental impact of the transport system (4) Effect on freight traffic quality. (5) Effect on quality of regional train services. It might be indicated beforehand that the first three indicators could be considered as direct effects deriving from the new rail infrastructure, the two latter ones being indirect effects, due to their effect on lines already operating commercially. 2. MODAL DISTRIBUTION OF PASSENGER TRAFFIC IN CORRIDORS WITH HIGH-SPEED LINES The quality of the transport service offered is made up of a series of variable factors, even though the importance of the time factor is the one most usually acknowledged in assessment criteria. Available experience does however make it possible to stress the influence exerted by the type of trip made when it comes to assessing time as the key variable in modal choice. Results of studies carried out in Germany show that the main variable factors in business trips are: trip time, time available and spatial comfort. On the other hand, when they are private trips or holidays, fare levels are the main evaluating priority. The above reflections seem to be confirmed in practice, based on the results obtained in France, CONSEIL (1994), which for the same travel time by rail show the influence of the reasons for travelling in railair modal distribution. For the same travelling time, the railway s market share with respect to the plane can vary from one to three, depending on whether it involves tourist travel or business travel. It is interesting to point out that the high-speed rail offer is characterized, among other things, by the following features: lower fare levels than the plane (Fig. 1), greater spatial comfort (distance between seats on train of up to 100 cm as against 75/80 cm on the plane) and, finally, high railway service frequency (Table 2). The importance played by the frequency of services in a particular transport mode s attraction is well known. Experience shows that, in this area, high-speed services have generally enabled the number of services previously offered to be at least doubled. Around 20 to 22 services per day and per direction are currently offered on the main routes with highspeed services. 27 services per day and per direction are offered daily between Paris and Lyon (France). The quality of the high-speed rail service has in any case had practical results in the modal distribution outlined in Fig. 2 for trips made within the same country. It can be seen that the percentage of rail passengers with respect to the plane fluctuates between 35% and 90% for rail travel times of less than and close to four hours. These figures alone highlight the potential of this transport mode. The streams of passengers who annually use the aforementioned corridors (Fig. 3) located in the 5 million to 23 million area, are not surprising either. With respect to international routes, the current available experience with high-speed trains and, in particular, with complete, newly built infrastructure, is limited, being restricted to the Paris-Brussels line. There are, however, international services which partly run on newly built lines, as in the case of the Paris-Amsterdam, Paris-London and Brussels-Nice, among others. (Table 3) LOPEZ PITA (2001a).

4 Andrés López Pita 4 The railway s market share with respect to the plane fluctuates between 45% and 95% (Fig. 4). This enables us to deduce the railway s actual chances of capturing markets on certain international routes, LOPEZ PITA (2001b). As the European network has been progressively extended and equipped with new infrastructure, the railway offer in the international passenger service sector has started to take on a new dimension. Yet this is undoubtedly only the prelude to what could happen in the near future (5 to 10 years) when the new lines programmed are physically implemented. 3. RAIL-AIR INTERMODALITY AT AIRPORTS Collaboration between the railways and the plane with respect to airport access goes back to the 1950s with the establishment of rail links to facilitate travel by this mode of transport to airports at Brussels and London- Gatwick. With the increase in air traffic in subsequent decades, this complementarity extended to other major European airports. Taken as a whole, there were basically two variable factors that influenced the decision to establish a rail link at any given airport with the city center: the distance to the city and the number of passengers using air transport. With respect to the first point mentioned, it is interesting to remark that the distance from airports to the center fluctuates between 4 and 50 km in Europe. It should also be emphasised that the conversion of major airports into cities in themselves means that there are objective reasons for having a public transport system that facilitates travel to the airport for those who work there. With regard to the second point, it should be stressed that most European airports with more than 6 million passengers per year at the end of the last decade had a rail connection of some type, either an underground railway, a suburban railway, or integrated into the national rail system of each country. The railway s market share for airport access fluctuates in Europe between 14% at Paris airport (Orly) and 43% at Oslo airport. The idea of complementarity between air services and high-speed trains at airports is of course much more recent. It actually originated in the second half of the eighties in France. The French government decided to build the Interconnection high-speed line linking the TGV-South-East, TGV-Atlantic and TGV-North lines in the Paris suburbs. It was also intended to serve Charles de Gaulle airport. This first high-speed station entered commercial service in November The TGV station at Lyon-Satolas airport, now called St Exupery, was opened almost simultaneously to commercial operations. The new ICE station at Frankfurt and another station at the Cologne-Bonn airport will be opened throughout the course of this year. The new station at Frankfurt has really been in operation since 1999 and is used by high-speed trains, but prior to the existence of the new line between Frankfurt and Cologne it could not provide high-speed services. The station already located at Schipol airport in Amsterdam will in the medium term receive high-speed Thalys services. While no definite dates have been established, the airports at Brussels, Paris-Orly and Milan- Malpensa could soon have high-speed lines connected to their terminals. The only link contemplated in Spain at the moment is the Madrid-Barcelona line connection to Barcelona airport. Table 4 summarizes the current and anticipated situation at the end of the decade in Europe. As for the number of services the high-speed railway offers or will offer, Fig. 5 shows the wide variety offered. It can be seen that Lyon airport has 14 trains/day (both directions included), while Frankfurt airport, from December , will have 84 trains /day (both directions included). It can be deduced from the above that there is limited available experience with respect to high-speed connections at European airports. In terms of transferring traffic from the plane to the railways at airports, what has been the impact achieved in these first few years? With relation to Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport, it should be stressed that at the end of the last decade 3.5% of air passengers at this airport used high-speed trains. Given that air traffic accounted for around 45 million passengers, it can be deduced that a million and a half passengers made use of rail-air intermodality. Paris Airports estimate that the above percentage of 3.5% should increase to between 5% and 10% in the middle of this decade. This means that, with normal increases in air traffic, it will affect between three and six million passengers per year. The first figure (5%) would be exclusively achieved on the basis of market development and the agreements signed between French railways and certain airlines. To achieve a transfer of 10%, it is considered necessary to find a suitable solution to baggage handling, making it possible for passengers to check-in their baggage as soon as possible when they get to the railway station.

5 Andrés López Pita 5 4. REDUCING THE ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF THE TRANSPORT SYSTEM As it is well known, the main negative, external effects of the transport system are: atmospheric pollution, noise, climatic change and congestion. In economic terms, recent studies by INFRAS/IWW (2000) put these effects at around 530 thousand million euros a year, equivalent to 7.8% of GDP for all the countries of the European Union plus Norway and Sweden. With respect to this, it is relevant to ask how far the European high-speed network has contributed to reducing these costs. Studies carried out at CENIT (Transport innovation Centre), which can be seen in greater detail in LOPEZ PITA et al. (2002c), show that, from the existence of the high speed lines indicated in Table 1 for Germany, Spain and France meant: a) Energy savings equivalent to more than seven thousand million litres of oil. b) A reduction of 19 million tons in CO 2, 88% in NO and 60% in SO 2. With a view to the future, it is expected that the positive effects of a reduced impact on the environment at the end of this decade - the moment in time when the high-speed network will, foreseeably, exceed 6,000 km - will take on very significant dimensions. 5. THE IMPACT OF NEW INFRASTRUCTURE ON RAILWAY FREIGHT TRANSPORT QUALITY New high-speed infrastructure has also played an important role in improving the relative quality of railway freight transport. Two main areas can be distinguished: 1) An increase in capacity on existing lines 2) The introduction of high performance freight services on high-speed lines. With relation to the first area, freight traffic opportunities and, therefore, regularity, have undoubtedly increased as a result of the massive transfer of passengers from conventional lines to high-speed services. As for the second area, the high-speed services introduced by high-speed lines in Germany and France, respectively, can be pointed out as examples. With respect to the German case, it should be mentioned that freight trains run on the new Hannover- Würzburg, Mannheim-Stuttgart and Hannover-Berlin high-speed lines at maximum speeds of between 100 and 160 km/h. Table 5 shows the number of passenger and freight trains that use the aforementioned high-speed lines. It is interesting to point out that freight trains run at 160 km/h between Hamburg and Munich, via the Hannover-Würzburg high-speed line. The 800 km distance is covered in 7h 43 minutes, at a commercial speed of 104 km/h. As for the French railways, some freight trains run at maximum speeds of 200 km/h every night on the Paris-Lyon and TGV-Atlantic high-speed lines. Commercial speeds of more than 130 km/h have been reached by freight trains on both the Paris-Avignon and the Paris-Bordeaux routes. The effect of operation of mixed traffic, that is, specialized passenger transportation trains and conventional freight trains, on high-speed lines on the cost of maintaining the tracks of these lines can be seen in LOPEZ PITA et al. (2001c). 6. REGIONAL PASSENGER RAIL SERVICES The arrival of new high performance infrastructure to the railway has had a dynamic effect on regional passenger services. Two areas can be mentioned: the first one, which affects conventional lines; the second one, which concerns the actual high-speed lines. It should be made clear that, in Europe, regional services are understood to be those passenger rail services that cover distances of less than or equal to 250 km. With respect to the impact of new rail infrastructure on regional services running on conventional lines, it should be highlighted that the moderness of high-speed trains used to be in contrast with the oldness of he rolling stock used by the railway on regional services. The old railcars have thus been replaced in recent years by new vehicles for regional services. The most significant examples can be found in France with the appearance of the TER (Regional Express Train); Germany, with the SPRINTER, and in Spain with the TRD (Diesel Regional Train). A detailed analysis of this subject can be seen in LOPEZ PITA (2000). With respect to the regional passenger services on high-speed lines, we shall mention two of the most representative examples. The first one corresponds to the so-called Shuttle Services between Madrid and Ciudad Real/Puertollano, in Spain (Fig. 6). AVE (Spanish High Speed) trains that run at a maximum speed of 300 km/h are used. They cover the distance between Madrid and Ciudad Real (170 km) in 50. The distance between Madrid and Puertollano (210 km) is covered in 1h 10. It is important to remember that both Ciudad Real and Puertollano have populations of only 50,000 inhabitants. Since the service was opened in 1993, annual

6 Andrés López Pita 6 passenger traffic has grown on average at more than 6%. There was a total of 900,000 passengers in 1993, and 1,500,000 passengers in Ten trains a day in either direction currently operate. The second example of regional services with high-speed trains concerns the Marseille-Montpellier route. Since June 2001, French high-speed trains (TGV) have covered the 178 km route in 1h15, as opposed to the previous time of 1h37. Four services a day in either direction have initially been scheduled. New regional high-speed services will be introduced in the short-term, on the 2004 horizon, on the Barcelona-Girona and Barcelona-Tarragona routes in Spain. 7. SUMMARY Progressive implementation of the European high-speed network in the last two decades, extending across nearly 3,000 km of line, has had various effects beyond those initially foreseen in the field in of rail-plane modal distribution. Indeed, if market shares of between 35 and 90% in this area are noteworthy, no less significant are the achievements obtained in other market segments, even if they are more qualitative than quantitative at the moment. The arrival of high-speed to some European airports has begun to develop intermodality in the transport chain. 4% of passengers at Paris-Roissy airport currently arrive or depart by means of high-speed trains. In environmental terms, the existence of new rail infrastructure has enabled significant energy savings to be made and has restricted the emission of pollutant gases to the atmosphere. Finally, rail freight traffic has been favoured by the decongestion of conventional lines caused by the massive transfer of passenger traffic to high-speed services. On those lines where the density of high-speed services makes it feasible, it has at the same time been possible to introduce high quality freight services. Regional passenger transport services have increased their market share, both through modernising the existing rolling stock, and by implementing new services on the current high-speed lines. 8. REFERENCES (1) A. CONSEIL, (1994) Grande réussite d un system: le TGV Sud-Est Chemins de Fer, mai, (2) A. LOPEZ PITA (2001a) A new challenge for Europe s railways: International passenger services. Rail International, (3) A. LOPEZ PITA(2001b) Railway and Plane in the European Transport System. UPC-CENIT Publications, IBBN (4) INFRAS/IWW (2000) External costs of transport in western Europe. Zurich / Karlsruhe. (5) A. LOPEZ PITA, L. UBALDE CLAVER, A. BACHILLER SAÑA (2002b) The environment and European high-speed lines: two decades of experience. I Congress of Civil Engineering, Territory and the Environment, February 2002, Madrid. (6) A. LOPEZ PITA and FRANCESC ROBUSTE (2001c) Compatibility and Constraints Between High- Speed Passenger Trains and Traditional Freight Trains. Transportation Research Record 1742, (7) A. LOPEZ PITA (2000) Il servizi regionali per ferrovia nella prospettiva del XXI secolo. Ingegneria Ferroviaria, 9 settembre.

7 Andrés López Pita 7 List of Tables and Figures TABLE 1 Commercially operated high-speed lines in Europe and types of traffic. TABLE 2 Seat pitches of high-speed trains and in the short-haul network in Europe. TABLE 3 Main international services with high-speed trains in Europe. TABLE 4 European cities with high-speed airport connections. Current and future situation. TABLE 5 Average number of trains running daily on German high-speed lines (2001). FIGURE 1 Comparison of rail and airfare levels on some European routes. FIGURE 2 Commercial impact of the first-speed lines in Europe. FIGURE 3 Average annual passenger traffic on certain European high-speed lines (in Million passengers) FIGURE 4 Modal distribution of rail-air traffic on some European international routes. FIGURE 5 Number of daily high-speed trains stopping at European airports. FIGURE 6 Regional high-speed services in Europe.

8 Andrés López Pita 8 TABLE 1 Commercially operated high-speed lines in Europe and types of traffic. COUNTRY GERMANY BELGIUM SPAIN FRANCE ITALY TOTAL LINE (km) Hannover- Würzburg (327) Hannover-Berlin (264) Mannheim-Stuttgart (100) French border- Brussels (71) Madrid-Seville (471) Paris-Lyon (417) TGV-Atlantic (282) TGV-North (333) TGV Rhône-Alps (121)) TGV- Interconnection (102) TGV- Mediterranean (251) Rome-Florence (Direttisima) (249) 2,988 km TRAFFIC OPERATING MAXIMUM SPEEDS IN COMMERCIAL OPERATIONS (km/h) 200 to to to to to to 160 FIRST YEAR OF SERVICE Passengers 1991 Freight Passengers 1998 Freight Passengers 1991 Freight Passengers Passengers 200 to Passengers Freight Passengers Freight to to / / Passengers Passengers Passengers Passengers Passengers Freight to /84/92

9 Andrés López Pita 9 TABLE 2 Seat pitches of high-speed trains and in the short-haul network in Europe. TGV A PBKA AVE ICE ETR st Class (mm) nd Class (mm) PLANE 75 to 80

10 Andrés López Pita 10 TABLE 3 Main international services with high-speed trains in Europe. Corridor km Distance Milles Journey times Comercial speed km/h milles/h Paris-Brussels h Paris-London h Paris-Amsterdam h Brussels-Bordeaux h Brussels-Montpellier h London-B.St.Maurice h Brussels-Nice h

11 Andrés López Pita 11 TABLE 4 European cities with high-speed airport connections. Current and future situation. City and airport PARIS (Charles de Gaulle) High speed rail connection at airport Inserted on general Through route high speed line variant (1994) - FRANKFURT AMSTERDAM MILAN MALPENSA BRUSSELS DÜSSELDORF COLOGNE LYON (2002) (2006) - - (2001) - (1994) - - (2010) (2005 to 2010) - (2002) - Source: A. López Pita (2002)

12 Andrés López Pita 12 TABLE 5 Average number of trains running daily on German high-speed lines (2001). LINE Hannover-Würzburg NO. OF PASSENGER TRAINS AT 250/280 km/h 250/280 km/h 49 - NO. OF FREIGHT TRAINS AT 100/160 km/h 37 Mannheim-Stuttgart Hannover-Berlin Source: A. López Pita (2002)

13 Andrés López Pita 13 FIGURE 1 Comparison of rail and airfare levels on some European routes Source: A. López Pita (1999)

14 Andrés López Pita 14 FIGURE 2 Commercial impact of the first high-speed lines in Europe. Source: A. López Pita (2000)

15 Andrés López Pita 15 FIGURE 3 Average annual passenger traffic on certain European high-speed lines (in Million passengers).

16 Andrés López Pita 16 FIGURE 4 Modal distribution of rail-air traffic on some European international routes

17 Andrés López Pita 17 FIGURE 5 Number of daily high-speed trains stopping at European airports

18 Andrés López Pita 18 FIGURE 6 Regional high-speed services in Europe.