RAILWAY ACCESSIBILITY AND DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION: ENGLAND & WALES, 1871-1931.

The introduction of the railway network as a motorized transport system encouraged the territorial development of industrialized countries. This article tries to quantify the specified changes in the territorial accessibility and the effects on the population distribution. The study is focused on the territorial area of England and Wales between 1871 and 1931. To carry out this research, we used cartographic bases of each decade in GIS including stations, railway lines and the administrative areas with information about different census. The modelling is based on network analysis tools, obtaining the Index of General and Punctual Accessibility for each decade. These results are described analytically and contrasted with the evolution of the population in each territorial area, showing the effects of the railway network on the territory studied.