Abstract:

Chinese high-speed railway entered a rapid development phase in recent years. One of the most important purposes of the construction of high-speed railway is to realize passenger and freight transport distributary. The construction of passenger train-dedicated high-speed railway has increased passenger transport capacity, thus releasing traditional train transport capacity for the usage of freight transport. But high-speed railway has higher ticket prices than traditional trains and the number of traditional trains in some cities has decreased, so people maybe have to pay much higher fare to take high-speed trains when traveling by railway. This phenomenon is called “involuntary high-speed railway travel”. In this article, we analyze this phenomenon based on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway by comparing the monetary cost computed using the 2015 train timetable with hourly wage, and then estimate the possibility of “involuntary high-speed railway travel” of each city. The result shows that: (1) “involuntary high-speed railway travel” exists in many cities as monetary cost exceeds hourly wage in these cities; (2) the possibility of “involuntary high-speed railway travel” is around 50%; (3) the extent of “involuntary high-speed railway travel” varies in different cities—low at the endpoints, high in the middle, and relatively low in the Yangtze River Delta along the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway lines. Although traditional trains had not reduced too much along the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway lines, many low-income passengers may be forced to choose the high-speed railway once the number of traditional trains significantly declines, which may cause negative social impacts. This study can provide some references for the adjustment of the frequency of trains.

Key words: involuntary high-speed railway travel, monetary value of time, hourly wage, Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway