High Speed and the City

High speed rail services mean attractive travel times. High speed rail services being less rapid than air still can hold the majority of market shares when the travel time ranges between 2h and 3h30. This finding leads to the conclusion that the door-to-door travel time is the relevant element for modal choice. The question is consequently, how to reduce the door-to-door travel time when serving large built-up areas? Another important issue relating with rail is the capacity of the stations. This issue is even more stringent with high speed rail which means bigger volumes of passengers, particularly to and from main cities.