![Sample our Global Development journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5929/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Global-Development.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
High-speed rail (HSR) can serve cities in two main ways: first and foremost, via city-centre stations, but increasingly also via peripheral stations. By analyzing the case of Reims, an intermediate-size city located 150 km to the east of Paris and served by both a central station and a peripheral one, this article aims to identify the reasons that lead firms to locate around each type of station. Two surveys conducted in 2014 and 2015 enable us to show that HSR not only structures urban space but also segments it by function. While office availability is a very important location consideration for both station types, other location factors, including HSR, are type-specific. Moreover, the types of companies around each station are not the same. Business services located around Reims’ peripheral station are linked to the industrial base of the region, whereas firms around the central station are looking for proximity to final clients (either in connected cities or from regional markets) and to benefit from a positive neighbourhood image. As might be expected, HSR seems to produce urbanization economies (access to different transport modes and/or proximity to amenities) but in a different way around central and peripheral stations.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. Data from INSEE.
2. The launch of the HSR service has also led to increases in regular and season-ticket prices. For example, when the HSR service began operating, the price of a one-way trip from Reims to Paris was EUR 38 in the rush hour and EUR 28 off-peak, compared with EUR 22.10 before the opening of the HSR line.
3. But is not connected to the western HSR line.
4. The section of the A4 that previously crossed the city was renamed the A344 and its maximum speed limit was lowered.
5. SNCF, RFF (since 2015, SNCF Réseau), banks, property developers.
6. The location quotient (LQ) is a ratio that compares a region with a larger reference region according to one specific characteristic. Here, for example, a district of Reims is compared with the Reims metropolitan area on the basis of sectors of economic activity. The location quotient indicates relative concentration (specialization) within the district compared with the metropolitan area. Thus, if the location quotient for industrial activities is 8.14 around the peripheral station, this means that industrial activity is 8.14 times more concentrated around the peripheral station than across the metropolitan area on average.
7. Specifically, the zone in question is a ZAC, or zone d’aménagement concerté, a common type of mixed development zone in France.
8. This was not the case in 2007 (cf. Bazin et al., Citation2009).
9. In the central station district, all previously free parking became paid parking after the arrival of HSR.