Towards an Integrated Railway Network along the Genoa-Rotterdam Corridor

New scenarios arose with the development of high speed rail (HSR) services: their shorter travel times make them competitive against the car on short distances and the aeroplane on medium to long distances. HSR integration is best realised if a hierarchical system is conceived whereby cities not served by HSR lines are well connected by rail [Chen and Hall (J Transp Geogr 19:689-704, 2011)]. Such integration among the different railway services, e.g. HSR, long distance and regional trains, and freight, plays a crucial role in being able to take advantage of these new opportunities. Moreover, the integration with interregional and local services would help provide better regional accessibility to HSR, allowing people living in the hinterland along the corridor to travel easily between regions. Better use of existing tracks will also contribute to avoiding or alleviating the saturation of the lines, thus allowing railways to achieve a better level of service without large new infrastructural projects. This chapter focuses on the current provision of high speed and long distance services along the Rhine-Alpine Corridor and presents a new methodology developed to assess their integration. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016. All rights reserved.