Typology of high-speed rail city-to-city links

The development of high-speed rail (HSR) networks is leading to a very complex situation in terms of network configuration and the variety of services. This new panorama presents very different feasible connections between city-pairs, multiplying the possibilities of travelling. This paper evaluates the characteristics of all city-pairs served by HSR in Spain through a clustering analysis, with the goal of deriving an HSR city-pair link typology. This assessment offers a new perspective on the HSR network as a multi-role system encompassing eight types of links with very different characteristics. Identifying these types of HSR links will be a useful transport-planning tool for emerging HSR networks to anticipate the different kinds of links they will encompass and for future HSR cities to foresee the possibility of benefiting from one or another type of link and adapting their policies and strategies according to their potential services.