Research on Passenger Market Competitiveness of China High Speed Railway and Railway Traffic

High speed railway (HSR) in China will have a rapid growth in the following years. This paper first analyzes the different technological and economic characteristics of HSR, railway, air traffic and highway traffic and finds their unique comparative travelling distances. And then, three representative categories of O-D distances are studied. Specially, when HSR improves its speed from 300 km/h to 350 km/h, the competitive O-D distance extends from 1000km to 1300km. Considering competition and cooperation of HSR and railway traffic, it is suggested transforming the prevailing management mechanism and get adapted to the transportation market competition.