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We study the effects of introducing a high speed train connection on competition between airports, focusing on the new HST-link between Amsterdam and Brussels. We conduct a detailed analysis regarding the airport choice of passengers living in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Northern France and Western Germany. We compare the results with Spain, where a high speed train between Madrid and Barcelona has recently been inaugurated. We estimate a multinomial logit model of airport choice and predict future market shares, based on access time, frequency, average fare and airport specific constants. Direct and cross-elasticities are calculated and finally future market shares are predicted, incorporating changes in access time due to the introduction of the high speed train. We find that the introduction of a high speed train connection benefits the airport with the higher level of service most. This is in line with general economic reasoning that stronger suppliers benefit more from increased competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The modern high-speed train, developed in Japan from 1964, spread widely in Europe from the end of the 1970s. It has taken different forms in various European countries, reflecting different national approaches but also the realities of different national geographies, which make integration into a single European network difficult. Nonetheless such a network will be virtually complete in the urban core of North West Europe, as well as France, Spain and Italy, by 2009 and more widely across Europe about a decade later. The spatial impacts of the new lines will be complex. They will favour the large central cities they connect, especially their urban cores, and this may threaten the position of more peripheral cities. Within large metropolitan areas they will favour zones close to traditional central stations, but interesting possibilities exist for edge-city locations which may assist local urban regeneration. The UK's Thames Gateway is the most ambitious attempt in the world to achieve this on a sub-regional scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper a substantial comparison of different high-speed transportation systems and an approach to stochastic cost estimations are provided. Starting from the developments in Europe, the high-speed traffic technical characteristics of high-speed railways and Maglev systems are compared. But for a comprehensive comparison more criterions must be included and led to a wider consideration and the development of a multi-criteria comparison of high-speed transportation systems. In the second part a stochastic approach to cost estimations of infrastructure projects is encouraged. Its advantages in comparison with the traditional proceeding are presented and exemplify the practical implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with a multicriteria evaluation of High-Speed Rail, Transrapid Maglev and Air Passenger Transport in Europe. Operational, socio-economic and environmental performance indicators of the specific high-speed transport systems are adopted as the evaluation criteria. By using the entropy method, weights are assigned to particular criteria in order to indicate their relative importance in decision-making. The TOPSIS method is applied to carry out the multicriteria evaluation and selection of the preferable alternative (high-speed system) under given circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]