Highspeed Rail Market Growth and Socioeconomic Benefits Chairmans

High-speed Rail: Market Growth and Socioeconomic Benefits Chairman’s Opening Remarks n Michael Clausecker n UNIFE Director-General n High Speed Rail World Europe 2010 n Madrid, 8 November 2010

Agenda 1. What is UNIFE? 2. High-speed Rail Market Growth 3. Socio-economic Benefits of High-speed Rail 2

High-speed Rail Investments Socio-economic Benefits in Spain 3

High-Speed Rail Investments Socio-Economic Benefits in China n World Bank Study: High-Speed Rail: The Fast. Track to Economic Development? , Paul Amos, Dick Bullock, and Jitendra Sondhi, July 2010 n Most lines at least recover their operating and maintenance costs n Difficult to recover capital costs from passenger revenues alone, but there are strong socio-economic effects: Modal shift from air and road transport Release of capacity on existing lines for freight traffic Travel time savings for users Reduction of the overall carbon intensity of the transport system Reduction of road congestion and accidents Fundamental changes in accessibility and mobility have a positive influence on regional economic development

High-speed Rail Accessibility And Economic Benefits n Locally, high-speed rail also has a lasting impact on the competitiveness of the connected territories n From periphery to core: economic adjustments to high speed rail, Gabriel Ahlfeldt and Arne Feddersen, LSE Research Online, September 2010 the article analyses the economic effects of better transport accessibility thanks to high speed rail: n Counties adjacent to two intermediate Stations Limburg and Montabaur on the Cologne-Frankfurt high-speed line, which were exposed most strongly to the variation in accessibility, experienced a 2. 7% shift in GDP, compared to the rest of the study area n 0. 25% growth in GDP for any 1% increase in market access n Observed growth effects remain persistent as growth is not reversed during the subsequent years