The Economics of Speed - Assessing the Performance of High Speed Rail in Intermodal Transportation

The purpose of the proposed research is to understand how the operating speed of a high-speed system influences its performance within the context of the inter-modal transportation system. It aims to clarify how performance enhancement resulting from a marginal increase in line-haul speed varies depending on the structure of the intermodal network. The research focuses initially on the supply side with the specification and estimation of rail cost functions in which speed is included explicitly. These can then be integrated into origin-destination performance measures at the intermodal level. Additional work can follow to look at the demand side. There are many fairly good models of demand that relate performance to market share and other related indicators, although speed is often embedded in these models and is not easily parsed out as a decision variable. But there is a real dearth of cost models, especially ones where speed is an explicit exogenous variable. This research aims to fill this gap. It will add to current University of California Transportation Center (UCTC) funded work on intermodal measures of performance by integrating speed into the performance assessment of intermodal systems. The ultimate purpose is to inform policy regarding the choice of technology and configuration for high-speed rail systems.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $62117.00
• Contract Numbers:

  15833JEKA6

• Sponsor Organizations:

  California Department of Transportation

  1227 O Street
  Sacramento, CA  United States  95843

  Department of Transportation

  Research and Special Programs Administration
  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC    20590
• Performing Organizations:

  University of California Transportation Center (UCTC)

  University of California, Berkeley
  2614 Dwight Way, 2nd Floor
  Berkeley, CA  United States  94720-1782

  University of California, Berkeley

  Transportation Center
  2614 Dwight Way, 2nd Floor
  Berkely, CA  United States  94720-1782
• Principal Investigators:

  Kanafani, Adib

• Start Date: 20100801
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• Source Data: RiP Project 28008

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Economics; High speed rail; Intermodal transportation; Operating speed; Origin and destination; Transportation planning
• Uncontrolled Terms: Cost modeling; Performance assessment
• Subject Areas: Economics; Railroads;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01463713
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: University of California Transportation Center (UCTC)
• Contract Numbers: 15833JEKA6
• Files: UTC, RIP, USDOT, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Jan 3 2013 2:28PM