Access to Railway Stations in the Netherlands

A rail journey is rarely an end in itself but almost always part of a journey ‘chain’ which include access to and egress from the railway station. The integration of the rail-journey components is essential to achieving a continuous travel, door-to-door, when using the rail and to make the rail an attractive alternative to car and this requires seamless interchange at the station between the chain elements. The paper focuses on two lines of investigation with regard to the above. First, the perception of railway stations and the access journey and their importance in the perception of the railway journey is analyzed. It is assumed that the perception of the rail journey is a function of the journey generalized costs, the station perception and the quality of the access and egress journeys. Based on the data available the potential of making rail a more attractive mode by improving (through different means) the station perception is examined. The second line of investigation aims to examine how availability of car affects the use of rail and the access to station mode choice. Based on the results the paper discusses the question of how rail use can be increased through facilitating the interchange between different transport modes at railway stations.

Book Review David A. Hensher and Kenneth J. Button (eds.) Handbook of Transport and the Environment

Nowadays, any transport policy which does not account for its environmental implications should be considered inappropriate. Therefore any decision making regarding the transport system must reflect and consider the likely environmental consequences it might have. Moreover, many changes to the transport system are nowadays proposed not to improve transport operation but to reduce its environmental impact. In these settings, the Handbook of Transport and the Environment brings together the up-to-date knowledge we have on the interrelationship between transport and the environment. The word Environment is used here in its broader sense although naturally the focus is more on the core problems of climate change and air pollution.&nbsp

Book Review

Transport and Environment is a collection of papers that aim at “bringing together contributions from various disciplines to the study of the broad field of ‘Transport and Environment’” (p: xiii). The focus of the book is “the search for practical solutions that can advance the sustainability notions” (p: 5), and the emphasis of the book is on “technology measures and spatial (or planning) policies” (p: 9). All this sets the context in which this book should be judged against

Access to Railway Stations in the Netherlands

A rail journey is rarely an end in itself but almost always part of a journey 'chain' which include access to and egress from the railway station. The integration of the rail-journey components is essential to achieving a continuous travel, door-to-door, when using the rail and to make the rail an attractive alternative to car and this requires seamless interchange at the station between the chain elements. The paper focuses on two lines of investigation with regard to the above. First, the perception of railway stations and the access journey and their importance in the perception of the railway journey is analyzed. It is assumed that the perception of the rail journey is a function of the journey generalized costs, the station perception and the quality of the access and egress journeys. Based on the data available the potential of making rail a more attractive mode by improving (through different means) the station perception is examined. The second line of investigation aims to examine how availability of car affects the use of rail and the access to station mode choice. Based on the results the paper discusses the question of how rail use can be increased through facilitating the interchange between different transport modes at railway stations

The autonomous car - A blessing or a curse for the future of low carbon mobility? An exploration of likely vs. desirable outcomes

Certain developed countries have experienced the ‘peak car’ phenomenon. While this remains to be confirmed longitudinally, it looks certain that future mobility in Europe and elsewhere will be shaped by a particular technological development: driverless or autonomous transport. The ‘autonomous car’ ignites the imagination, yet the research and debate on this topic largely focus on the ‘autonomous’ and not adequately on the ‘car’ element. Like any new technological development, autonomous transport presents ample opportunities to better our mobility system, but similarly it carries risks and can lead into a future mobility that exacerbates, rather than relieves, current deficiencies of our mobility systems, including its high carbon and high cost characteristics. Now it is high time to explore these, before we lock ourselves into the autonomous car future. Using Low Carbon Mobility (LCM) as a guiding framework to assess mobility patterns and based on an extensive literature review, this paper aims to explore where there is a gap between the likely and desirable outcomes when developing the autonomous car and suggest how we might reduce it. Moreover, enhancing on global empirical evidence and forecasts about the opportunities and threats emerging from ICT deployment in transport and initial evidence on the development of the autonomous car, the paper concludes that a desirable outcome will only come if technological development will be accompanied by a social change. A change where public and sharing will be seen as superior to private and individual transport, could make the autonomous car a blessing

Choice of Aircraft Size - Explanations and Implications

To keep load factors high while offering high frequency service, airlines tend to reduce the size of the aircraft they use. At many of the world’s largest airports there are fewer than 100 passengers per air transport movement, although congestion and delays are growing. Furthermore, demand for air transport is predicted to continue growing but aircraft size is not. This paper aims to investigate and explain this phenomenon, the choice of relatively small aircraft. It seems that this choice is associated mainly with the benefits of high frequency service, the competitive environment in which airlines operate and the way airport capacity is allocated and priced. Regression analysis of over 500 routes in the US, Europe and Asia provides empirical evidence that the choice of aircraft size is mainly influenced by route characteristics (e.g. distance, level of demand and level of competition) and almost not at all by airport characteristics (e.g. number of runways and whether the airport is a hub or slot coordinated). We discuss the implications of this choice of aircraft size and suggest that some market imperfections exist in the airline industry leading airlines to offer excessive frequency on some routes and too low frequency on others

The environmental case for the high-speed train in the UK: examining the London–Manchester route

This article investigates the potential for environmental benefit from the introduction of the High Speed Train (HST) on the London–Manchester route in the UK, focusing on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The lifecycle carbon emission of HST is assessed, and its sensitivity to demand changes is analyzed for several scenarios. Based on the UK Government demand assumptions, the analysis shows relatively limited potential for reduction in CO2 emissions. In 2033, overall CO2 reduction due to HST operation on the route is estimated at 100,000 tCO2 per annum, which is less than 0.1% of the total UK domestic transport emissions in 2007

Choosing the right public transport solution based on performance of components

Planners often focus on a specific mode too early in the design and selection process, especially on the choice between bus and rail technology. It may be that available Right of Way (RoW), alignment characteristics and other design features are more important. In this paper, we first identify the principal components central to performance of a particular role common to all major Public Transport (PT) investments. The primary aim is to offer a more mode-neutral alternative selection process that benefits from ex-post cost and performance information about a substantial number of actual PT systems broken down into these components to the extent that is possible. Less quantitative components and features, such as passenger experience, scalability, and implementability are then discussed for their role in increasing or diminishing the attractiveness of alternative candidate component packages in the desired range of the quantitative criteria. The results show that investment costs increase with the degree of separation of RoW, regardless of rail or bus technology, with rail having an additive “technology premium”. Higher Average Operating Speed (AOS) reduces investment in vehicles and the Operating and Maintenance (O&M) cost, regardless of technology. At low/moderate passenger traffic densities, Semirapid Bus modes have lower O&M costs than Semirapid Rail. At the highest densities, Rapid Rail and Regional Rail modes exhibit clear economies of scale. For mixed street running, rail-related components cause a far more expensive total investment on per unit of Productive Capacity (PC) basis. As the required PC increases, rail modes become consistently less expensive. The main conclusion is that in order to improve value-for-money of PT it is critical to develop innovative component technologies and construction techniques, which are not necessarily rail or bus specific