This presentation reviews the rapid progress of high-speed rail (HSR) construction and its successful competition with cars and air travel on distances between 100 and 1,200 km. More than 20 countries have built or are building HSR lines, but the United States is not among the leaders in HSR development.

Countries in Europe and East Asia are expanding their high-speed rail (HSR) networks. Station areas served by HSR are emerging as new hubs of economic and cultural activities, thereby affecting the network of service sector industries in the HSR corridor. Over time HSR cities gain functional specialization, creating a polycentric regional form. The authors show that cities located on a proposed HSR corridor have a varied functional structure and established branch network of firms.

The National High-Speed Rail Corporation Limited of India is implementing an HSR corridor between Mumbai and Ahmedabad with the help of Japan International Cooperation Agency. A four-stage travel demand model has been developed, replicating the existing travel behavior and incorporating all the proposed land use and transport network developments across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region till 2051. Considerably large boarding rates on the HSR are estimated.

The JICA-financed Mumbai–Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail (HSR) Project is 505 kilometers long and will have 12 stations. With advice from Japanese experts, the HSR Corporation has almost finalized the planning of the station plaza and access roads necessary to cope with transport demand when the HSR opens in 2023. The next stage of the discussion will raise issues on the expansion of the transport hub, improvement of feeder transport access, and development of areas adjacent to HSR stations.

In recent years, there has been an increasing move toward appraising the impacts of transport investments beyond the direct user benefits and costs. This presentation reviews the arguments in favor of measuring such impacts, the progress made in implementing such impacts in the appraisal, and the limitations of such an approach. It also shares disaggregate approaches that analyze the way new transport infrastructure, particularly high-speed rail, may lead to the restructuring and rebalancing of local and regional economies.