The effect of the reduction of the Hungarian railwayudnetwork in 2009 on accessibility

摘要

There are two aims of this study. Firstly, to give a quantitative overview on the changingudrailway accessibility due to the reduction of the railway network in 2009 in Hungary.udSecondly, to discuss various forms of detour indices, the main method of analysis. Fromudprevious quantitative analyses of the Hungarian railway network, Csaba Kovács’s (1973)udstudy is to be noted, in which he analysed the geographical location of 197 settlements onudthe railway network. Gábor Szalkai’s (2001) study included dynamic comparisons inudaddition to the static characteristics of the railway network at that time. In addition, ituddescribed the impacts of unmounting the circular railway network due to the Treaty ofudTrianon after the First World War, of mutilating the branch line network after 1968, andudof a potential new Kecskemét-Dunaújváros-Szolnok line on accessibility. The presentudstudy diverges primarily in two aspects from these analyses. On the one hand, it concernsuda smaller railway network after the reduction of railway network in 2007 and in 2009. Asudthe study also aims to analyse the impact on accessibility of closed branch lines after theudschedule change in December 2009, it deals with two networks (smaller than the onesudexamined in earlier studies). However, it does not deal directly with the impact ofudrestarting some lines in June and December 2010. On the other hand, the set of data usedudis wider in the sense that it uses actual schedule data regarding temporal accessibilityudbetween stations.udThe study is concerned both with descriptive analysis of situation and temporaludcomparison; however, it does not deal with economic, cost-effective, environmental,udschedule and other concerns of railway transport, but focuses solely on its supply-side.udTraffic data would be interesting for weighted calculations with the particular networkudelements, but these are not available. I do not touch upon conceptual issues ofudaccessibility, which are well described in Tamás Fleischer’s two studies (Fleischerud2008a, 2008b). In the present analysis, accessibility means whether a given settlementudcan be approached by train, and if so, how far it is from the other settlements