How to Promote Sustainable Land-Use Changes Through Developing Intermodal High-Speed Railway Stations: a case study in Portugal

Abstract

The literature shows that the development of the railway system in most European countries had a key role both in the evolution of urban systems and regional dynamics. On the other hand, it can be said that railway stations might act as important drivers for promoting sustainable land-use changes, namely of node and place functions which can be consistently balanced.

The future Portuguese High-Speed Railway (HSR) network is considered as a major strategic transport scheme at both the Iberian and national levels. Its first stage comprises three routes. Of these, one links the Lisbon Metropolitan Area with the Spanish border of Badajoz, being an integral part of the HSR between both Iberian capitals, whereas the other two form the Atlantic Axis, encompassing a system of cities ranging from Lisbon to Porto, an from the latter point to Braga, Vigo and Coruña, concentrating nearly 80% of the whole Portuguese population, and serving an area generating about 90% of Portugal’s GDP.

The Lisbon to Porto HSR line, hereafter designated as the Atlantic corridor, will be a 292 Km-long standard-gauge (1435 mm) one, supplementing an historic and congested 146-year old Iberian-gauge (1668mm) main line. The new HSR line is expected to open by 2017, and will feature a limited number of intermediate stations, enabling an easy interchange with other transport modes, namely with the broad-gauge conventional rail network.

The future intermodal “Leiria-AV” HSR station, one of the four intermediate railway stations within the Lisbon – Porto line, will be located between the neighbourhood of Leiria (circa 42785 inh. in 2004) and Marinha Grande (38599 inh. in 2008), in the industrial zone of Barosa, at around 120 km North of Lisbon Metropolitan Area (LMA). This new intermodal HSR station is expected to function as a major regional interchange, by providing access to various urban centres, with support on both the tangencial Western main railway line, the A8 North-South coastal motorway and the “National Road” linking Leiria and Marinha Grande. One can say that the foreseen centrality, which will be at 35 minutes travel time from LMA, will be an opportunity to integrate railway development, activity location and spatial planning both at the regional and local levels, aiming at sustainable patterns of development. The work presented in this paper is the first stage of a broader research project on the topic “High Speed Railway in Portugal: impacts and intermodality within the Leiria region” which covers a wide range of HSR impacts. The questions addressed in this research are as follows: o What are the potential territorial implications of the HSR network in the region of the “Leiria-AV”? o How to promote sustainable land use and transport changes using the new intermodal HSR station as a (local and regional) development anchor? o How to balance expected HSR impacts if the aim is to achieve both sustainable and healthier communities along with maximizing economic and other potential positive impacts?

The research methodology will comprise two major steps: i) benchmarking exercise of other reference cities in Europe where HSR was already implemented, such that a list of potential impacts can be now anticipated for the case of the intermediate city of Leiria; ii) implementation of an attitudinal and stated choice survey to a representative sample of economic agents and other stakeholders that will assess individuals’ (local communities) and group (firms) perceptions regarding the impacts of the HSR project and specific intermodal scenarios set for promoting sustainable land use and transport mode changes; iii) the comparison of potential versus perceived impacts and preferred intermodal options. Overall research results are expected to contribute towards future policy formulation with respect to railway and land use developments both at the community and regional level aiming at achieving sustainable patterns of development.

This paper is centred on the benchmarking exercise that comprised major reference cities where HSR were already implemented and on the preliminary results obtained from a stated choice (SC) survey administered to a sample of economics agents within Lisbon Metropolitan Area. This SC survey focused on the assessment of those potential territorial effects related to relocation of offices nearby the future “Leiria AV” HSR station.

The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 presents an overview of the HSR project in Portugal and the Leiria AV station in the context of the urban/regional network. Section 3 provides a discussion of the territorial impacts related to the HSR project considering a benchmarking exercise that included impacts observed at similar characteristics to Leiria and HSR connections. Subsequently, section 4 present a prospective analysis of those impacts for the Leiria region, including a stated-choice experiment which was implemented to a sample of firms in Lisbon to evaluate ex ante possible office relocation choices. Some prospective scenarios are then outlined. Finally, section 6 concludes and some further research directions can be drawn.