The advantages of a high-speed rail – an example between Madrid and Barcelona

In 2008 a high-speed rail connection has been opened between Madrid and Barcelona shortening the time getting from one city to the other to 2 hours and 38 minutes. The main goals of the construction were the reduction in travel time on the corridor and the increase of capacity and safety conditions on the rail line (Frontier, 2011).

There are numerous changes that followed the launch of the HSR between Madrid and Barcelona. It shifts passengers from other transport modes, for example car, traditional rail and air (Dyjak et al., 2011). Constructing a new line between the two cities that are 600 km far from each other has a significant effect on air transport too (Rus, 2008). Previous to 2008 nearly 90 percent of the people travelling between Madrid and Barcelona went by air, but since the HSR has been built the number of passengers that go with train are increasing and even surpassing passengers going with planes. This trend is pointing towards a more environmentally friendly future as emissions per passenger on a high-speed train are approximately one-fourth of the emissions generated by flying by plane or driving a car. This is a great advantage as there is a growing public concern about environmental issues in Europe (Bachtler & Wren, 2005).

Lowering the emission of carbon dioxide is however not the main goal of most of the passengers who choose HSR to other means of transport. It is also more comfortable and convenient to travel with HSR. The train offers assigned reclining seats, computer outlets, movies, headsets, good food and gloved attendants to make people satisfied while travelling in these trains. Also, people can get to the station just 10 minutes before the departure unlike at airports, thus lowering the time spent on travelling. These are the main reasons why though it is not cheaper to travel by HSR than by plane between Madrid and Barcelona many choose this form of travelling (Rosenthal, 2010).

Also, polycentricism is a goal in Spain. As there is a low location index in Spain, with expanding the high-speed railway network the country tries to avoid concentration and centralization of the economic activity (Dyjak et al., 2011). The HSR line between Madrid and Barcelona has an impact on mobility, accessibility, socio-economic structure, urban image and spatial effects. These factors are considered to be significant but it is hard to quantify them in monetary terms (Frontier, 2011).

One of the most striking examples for the growing economic activity caused by HSR is the town of Ciudad Real located 120 miles from Madrid which has completely vanished because of the railway and the highway that bypassed the town. Now that an HSR station is located near the town and makes travel a lot less time-consuming, Ciudad Real has come alive as the HSR attracted a host of industries. Also, the University of Castilla-Lamancha has grown in size and importance too just because it is linked by the HSR (Catan, 2009).

Spain was always a top destination of tourists from all around the world. Now that more and more HSR lines are being built connecting cities all over the country it is easier not just for the workforce to be more flexible but also for the tourists to discover the cultural diversity of different Spanish regions (Raileurope, 2011). First, mostly business travelers were expected on the line between Barcelona and Madrid, but it is busy on the weekends too which means that Spanish people and tourists also use it to discover the cities. The government says that high-speed trains boost tourism which is the nation’s biggest industry and business travel. Also, constructing and maintaining a line make jobs for thousands of people. In the cities near the lines many companies that are involved in the different sectors of high-speed rail are investing in offices, plants and yards near the stations (Sheehan & Bee, 2012).

However, there are downsides too of the HSR line between Madrid and Barcelona. One of the problems is the corridor effect that shows the problem of the development of regions located between junctions of HSR lines. In these cases the infrastructure passes through the regions in between the stops without having much impact (Dyjak et al., 2011).

Moreover, the Spanish government wants to spend up to 77 billion dollars to expand and improve the lines while there is still an economic crisis.  When they built the Madrid-Barcelona line Spain it the economy was rising, but maybe now it would be wiser to cut the spending. Even if the number of passengers that choose HSR rises, the railroad system cannot cover its costs yet even between Madrid and Barcelona (Sheenan, 2012).

There are protests against the HSR too. A violent separatist group in the Basque country called Eta has launched an environmental campaign against the train. They even shot a local contractor in 2008 because he worked on the line (Tremlett, 2009). This shows that some people don’t want the country that is separated out somewhat to be intertwined (Catan, 2009), because they fear their independency and that they would assimilate to the rest of the country.

Nóra Szabó

References

Bachtler, J., & Wren, C. (2005). The evaluation of EU cohesion policy: Research questions andpolicy challenges.

Catan, T. (2009). Spain’s Bullet Train Changes Nation. The Wall Street Journal. 

Dyjak, R., Magda, I., Rosik, P., Zawistowski, J., Gapski, T., & Bienias, S. (2011). Evidence based Cohesion Policy and its role in achieving Europe 2020 objectives. In T. Gapski, S. Bienias, & E. Opalka (Eds.), . National Cohesion Strategy.

Raileurope. (2011). High Speed Rail News: Travel by High-Speed Train inSpain. High Speed Rail News.

Rosenthal, E. (2010). High-Speed Rail Gains Traction in Spain. The New York Times. Retrieved from 

Rus, G. D. (2008). The economic effects of High Speed Rail investment. OECD/ITF Joint Transport Research Centre Discussion.

Sheehan, T., & Bee, F. (2012). Economic impact of high-speed railvaries in Spain. San Francisco Chronicle.

Sheenan, T. (2012). Spain’s high-speed rail system offers lessons forCalifornia. The Orange County Register.

Tremlett, G. (2009). High-speed rail in Spain: From Madrid to Barcelonain a flash. Guardian.

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What is the use of a bridge? The impacts of the Danube Bridge 2

Constantine’s Bridge, the largest bridge of the ancient times was built in the 4^th century, under the reign of the Roman Emperor Constantine I the Great. It was also the first bridge in the Romanian-Bulgarian section of the Danube, followed by the Ruse-Giurgiu Bridge more than 1600 years later, in 1954, which was built under the initiative of Joseph Stalin.

Accordingly, when finished in November 2012, the Danube Bridge 2 will be the third bridge ever built in this section of the river in the past 2000 years. The total cost of the construction is estimated to be € 226m from which € 70m is covered by the European Union as a part of its regional policy. The bridge will be 1971 m long, and include road and pedestrian paths to both directions and a railway track connecting the towns of Calafat (Romania) and Vidin (Bulgaria).

The costs of the construction are clear, but how can one estimate the benefits of building such a bridge? According to the European Union, by integrating Bulgaria’s road and railway system into the European transportation network, the Danube Bridge 2 will be an important part of the European Transport Corridor IV, which runs from Dresden to Istanbul connecting Western and Eastern Europe. In terms of economic geography, the most obvious effect of the construction will be the substantial reduction of the transport costs. The two towns are now linked by a ferryboat for which it takes around 20 minutes to cross the Danube. The ferry has no schedule, and it takes off only when all of its six trucks are filled. With the bridge, the same journey will take only one and a half minute.

As it can be seen in the map, there are several smaller towns around Vidin, while the Romanian side is relatively drear. According to the core model of economic geography which assumes two sectors and mobile labour force in one of the sectors, the main beneficiaries of the construction will be the towns of Vidin and Calafat which will be directly connected by the bridge. The model suggests that the reduction of transport costs will induce agglomeration in the town with a production cost advantage. Since wages are considerably lower in Vidin, it will experience the largest growth in size (and therefore, in welfare), while Calafat will have only a modest benefit from the construction.

However, the model cannot account for several other factors which also affect the spatial distribution of economic activity: there might be other factors influencing the workers’ ability to migrate (e.g. differences in language as Bulgarian is a Slavic while Romanian is a Latin language), and the construction will undoubtedly attract investments from other parts of the country or even from other countries. In addition, the sectorial composition of the economy is much more complex in real life than in the model (e.g. industry, transport, agriculture etc.).

Nevertheless, some of the potential effects are predictable. Vidin is a main town in north-western area of Bulgaria with a population around 47 000. The region is borders Romania and the Danube to the north and Serbia and Montenegro to the west and south. During the Yugoslavian wars in the 1990s, the region suffered badly from the trade embargo against Serbia. As a result, in spite of its advantageous geographic and transport location, it is considered to be the most under-developed region in the country. The unemployment rate is twice as high as the country’s average, and young people either emigrate or move to other parts of the country. Because of the high unemployment, hundreds of people commute to Romania from Vidin every day. By inducing agglomeration, the bridge is expected to change this deteriorating trend: the construction already created 1000 jobs, and attracted foreign investments which have increased the real estate prices in the area. In addition, as the city has several famous landmarks, the bridge may attract tourists and create other employment possibilities.

In the Romanian side, the town of Calafat is considerably smaller than Vidin with a population around 16 000. Although they say that the bridge is not as important for them as it is for the Bulgarians (this was actually predicted by the model), the people of Calafat also expect positive long-term economic impacts from the construction mainly through new employment possibilities. The construction is expected to pump an estimated € 57m into the local economies on both sides.

Besides stimulating local economies, the bridge has key importance in strengthening the relationship between Romania and Bulgaria. In the past, in spite of their shared history the two countries were largely separated from each other by politics and language. The construction of the bridge can be considered as an evidence for the countries’ willingness to cooperate with each other. This is essential, given the fact that the countries’ border areas, like Vidin and Calafat have similar development problems that could be overcome only by common solutions.

Anna Trendl

References

History. (2010). 

New Danube bridge to speed up international traffic. (2010, January 16). from Regional Policy-Inforegio

The Romania-Bulgaria Cross Border Cooperation Programme. (2010). from Partnership for Active Cooperation and Encouragement in the Cross-border Region Silistra-Calarasi

Cost of 2nd Bulgarian-Romanian Danube Bridge Up EUR 26 M. (2012, January 27). from novinite.com - Sofia news Agency 

Two new bridges to be built over the Danube. (2012, February 11). from Europost - Weekly for politics, business and culture

Brunwasser, M. (2006, June 14). Bridge to a new era for Bulgaria and Romania - Europe - International Herald Tribune. from The New York Times

News on the construction of Danube bridge 2. (n.d.). from Vidin Estates

Sommerbauer, J. (2007, January 2). Danube II: bridging united waters. from cafebabel.com - The European Magazine

VIDIN - Geography and history. (n.d.). from Portrait of the Regions 

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