Impact of High Speed Rail Stations on Local Development: A Delphi Survey

A methodological approach to analyze the territorial appropriation of high-speed rail from interactions between actions and representations of local actors

“…In accordance with these reflections and in the continuity of studies devoted to the influence of the choices of station location on the territorial integration of HSR (Bertolini, 1998;Loukaitou-Sideris et al, 2012;Mohino et al, 2014), our own previous research on HSR stations (Facchinetti-Mannone and Bavoux, 2010; Facchinetti-Mannone, 2012 and 2016) reveals that the process of territorialization of HSR has encountered a certain territorial inertia due as much to "the effects of place" as to the appropriation modes of the new transport supply by territorial actors. If, as Delaplace pointed out, "appropriation depends on factors such as station location and the strategy implemented by local stakeholders" (Delaplace, 2017), the degree of appropriation of the potentials of HSR has been a major factor in the involvement of local actors in the decision-making process leading to the choice of the location of HSR stations, and in the implementation of coherent and coordinated strategies improving the territorial integration of HSR.…”

“…These factors include: the characteristics of HSR services (frequency, destination and type of services) and national and regional accessibility by train (Bertolini, 2008;Mohino et al, 2014;Willigers, Van Wee, 2011), the efficiency of intermodal connection (Conticelli, 2011;Facchinetti-Mannone, Carrouet, Berion, 2016;Tapiador, Burckhart and Marti-Henneberg, 2009), the location of the HSR station (Adolphson and Froidh, 2017;Givoni, 2006;De Jong, 2009;Facchinetti-Mannone, 2009;Martinez Sanchez-Mateos and Givoni, 2012) and the specificities of served areas. These specificities include the size of the city, its position in the urban hierarchy (Urena, et al 2006 and, "pre-existing economic and land market conditions" (Loukaitou-Sideris, et al 2012), the diversity of economic activities (Bertolini, 1999) as well as supportive urban planning and economic strategies.…”

“…These strategies have a major influence on the successful integration between railway nodes and cities (Bellet, Alonso, Gutierez, 2012;Conticelli, 2011;Loukaitou-Sideris et al 2012;Vickerman, 2015; f.i). Many scientific studies have shown that the infrastructure and the new conditions of accessibility are, ultimately, only development opportunities that territorial actors need to grasp by means of accompanying measures and appropriate development strategies.…”

“…Taking the example of the North European highspeed line, Menerault has clearly shown that the territorial changes linked with the improvement in rail accessibility closely depend on the national, regional and local modes of appropriation of the highspeed rail service (Menerault, 1996(Menerault, , 1997(Menerault, and 2000. Several scholars (Bazin, et al 2010;Delaplace, 2017;Feliu, 2012;Loukaitou-Sideris et al 2012;Peters, 2009) have highlighted that the collective appropriation of the HSR service and the ability of actors to collaborate are key to the emergence of the positive "effects" of the infrastructure. In order to understand how the territory appropriates the new transport supply, several works have focused on the actors' strategies and logics (Blanquart, et al, 2010;Chaplain, 1994;Cohou, 2000).…”

The effects of the high-speed railway on urban development: International experience and potential implications for China

“…However, other transport modes also contribute. A recent Delphi Survey among international experts states that the location of an intermediate HSR city at a transportation node with strong connections to other regional and inter-regional networks was listed as the most important prerequisite for its future development (Loukaitou-sideris, Cuff, Higgins, & Linovski, 2012). Chen and Hall (2011) studied the Manchester and Lille sub-regions and showed that the simultaneous development of the intra-regional transport network and a HSR hub strategy are crucial for spill-over effects from the arrival of HSR.…”