Page 379 - 360.revista de Alta Velocidad - Nº 5

Economic, geographical and time-based exclusion as main factors inhibiting Spanish users from choosing High
Speed Rail

In Table 3, the choice among the seven categories of social exclusion proposed by Church, et al.
(2000) is analysed. Specifically respondents were asked to rank their perception of each factor
of exclusion from 1 (scarcely inhibiting) to 5 (highly inhibiting). As it can be seen, economic and
geographical exclusion have turned out to be inhibiting users from choosing HSR, and therefore
they have been the fundamental reasons for not using this means of transport by non-HSR users.

Table 3 – Church’s categories of social exclusion (non-HSR users)

These values have been compared with two similar case studies previously conducted in Italy
and UK (Pagliara, et al., 2015b; 2016). In order to make the comparison properly, the values for
Spain have been reported to the unit so that the total sum could be 100%. The results of the
comparison (see Figure 2) show that geographical exclusion is a factor of exclusion mainly in
Italy (60%) rather than in Spain and UK (less than 25%). This can be explained considering the
mode choice and the different extension of the current HSR network in the three countries. In
Italy, HSR is the first choice for passengers travelling long distances although the network is not
extended and not capillary, in contrast to what happens in Spain, with a quite dense HSR network
covering the territory in a quite homogeneous way (see Figure 2). In UK the network is not very
extended, and therefore HSR is not considered as a real alternative mode for interurban trips,
which could explain why geographical exclusion is less felt than the economic one in this case.
Fig. 2 - Comparison of the main components of social exclusion in HSR services for
Italy, Spain and UK

Furthermore, Tables 4 and 5 show the categories of social exclusion and their relation to both
trip purpose and household monthly income. As it can be seen, those who travelled for holiday
or for personal reasons and have a lower income, feel excluded from HSR due to economic and
geographical reasons. At this point, it should be noted that these two categories often coexist,
since those individuals who have limited financial resources are also unable to live in areas
accessible to HSR services, typically city centres.

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