Page 291 - 360.revista de Alta Velocidad - Nº 5

Reducing High-Speed Rail Costs by Combined Double-Single Tracks

2.1.4 Rational investment analysis

Once all possibilities have been determined, a multi-criteria analysis will decide which one is
the best alternative, not only from the economic perspective (50% weight) but also in regard to
the quality from a technical standpoint (50% weigh).

To evaluate the economic perspective, a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) is performed on a long-
term scale, with a greater focus on their social benefits. The indicators used for this aim are
the following:
(a) Benefit-cost ratio (BCR):

(b) Payback period considering a useful life of 40 years (PB).

Regarding to the technical indicators, the following quality measures have been used:

(a) QM index:

Table 4. Weighing used for the definition of the QM index.

RT 1 <RT<1,05 1,05<RT<1,1 1,1<RT<1,15 1,15<RT<1,2 RT>1,2

Weighing 1 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2

a) Maximum relative travel time, RTmax
b) Mean relative travel time, RTmean
c) Continuation of services: score 1 if the Santander-Liérganes line is continued and 0 if
not.

International Congress on High-speed Rail: Technologies and Long Term Impacts - Ciudad Real (Spain) - 25th anniversary Madrid-Sevilla corridor 289