Descripció del projecte
The Ph. D thesis will carry out original research along the following topics:
– Efficient price structure of rail services in metropolitan areas
The starting point of the research is the theoretical discussion on the optimal price structure of public transport in metropolitan areas (Basso and Silva, 2019, Brueckner, 2005). The outcome of this debate shows that the answer depends on the urban form, the pattern of travel and the relationship between price and cost of the modes of transport operating in the area. The increase in teleworking will reduce the travel frequencies of frequent users and, as a result, will affect the use of existing temporary season tickets. To a lesser extent, there may also be an increase in the distance travelled as consequence of the suburbanization process. These changes affect the optimum tariff structure and the frequency of services.
The aim of this chapter is to quantify the impact of different public transport ticket structures on social welfare, the number of passengers-kilometres and the revenues of public transport companies, taking into account the change in users’ behaviour described in the previous paragraph.
The research should develop a theoretical model for characterizing the optimal structure of rates and service frequencies and estimate the demand and costs coefficients necessary for its calibration.
– Willingness to pay for high speed rail attributes in a competitive context
Rail services not subject to public service obligation are open to competition between different operators. The traveller’s choice depends on the combination of offered price and quality, which, among other things, depend on travel time, frequency, reliability and on-board services. Recent literature (Fosgerau, 2019) shows that information technologies have changed the perception that travel time is a “lost” time insofar as the traveller can dedicate his/her time to productive activities. Understanding the willingness to pay for quality variables should enable the rail company to improve its competitive strategy by adapting its price structure.
The research aims to estimate the willingness to pay for the quality variables that railway operators can offer, focusing on the role of on-board technological services, trip frequencies and services’ reliability. This research requires conducting a stated-preferences’ survey to a sample of users, whose methodology has advanced a lot in recent years reducing its inherent (Soza -Parra et al 2019).
– Impact of the high speed rail on intermediate cities
The development of the HSR has been accompanied by the opening of stations in cities mid intermediate cities. One issue that has generated intense debate in the literature is whether the HSR has a positive economic impact on these cities or the so-called tunnel effect predominates (Gutierrez Puebla, 2004 ). Some recent studies analysing this topic are Koster et al 2020 and Ahlfeldt & Feddersen, 2018 .
The extensive development of the high-speed network in Spain, the period for which data is now available and the heterogeneity of the cities that benefit from it offer an ideal framework to analyse the HSR impact on intermediate cities.
The study aims to estimate the effect of high-speed network connection on economic activity and on population migration changes. Connections will be measured as changes in travel times between cities, also taking into account services’ frequency. This point is important because most available studies are limited to measuring HSR connections by means of a simple binary variable. A panel-data econometric model will be used.
