Page 142 - 360.revista de Alta Velocidad - Nº 6

Beckerich, Christophe. Benoit, Sylvie. Delaplace, Marie.

There is an attractiveness effect at the intraregional level for firms already located in the same
city or region before the arrival of HSR, but this effect doesn’t exist at the interregional level
(Willigers, 2008). For other authors, HSR brings no major changes in terms of attractiveness for
businesses (RFF, 2010, Mannone, 1995, Bazin et al., 2009), while for others still HSR is rarely, in
itself, a location factor (Mannone, 1997; Sands, 1993; Kamel and Matthewman, 2008; Haynes,
1997): “The majority of offices that choose a high‐speed train station site, would also have
chosen this location in a situation without high‐speed trains” (Willigers, 2008, 262).
Others consider that the effect of HSR depends on the type of station, with comparisons made
between peripheral and central stations (Mannone, 2009) or between central and intermediate
stations (Vickerman, 2015), for example. With regard to intermediate stations, “there has
been little identifiable local economic development associated with many of these stations“
(Vickerman, 2015, p. 157).
Moreover, among peripheral stations, there is a heterogeneity due to valorization policies
(Mannone, 2010, 2013; Bellet, 2016).
In reference to the case of Amsterdam, Willigers (2008) points out that a central location
tends to be favoured by companies whose employees frequently require access to international
destinations because central stations offer better international connexions.
Peripheral locations are favoured by service‐sector firms oriented towards the national market
because accessibility is better. Finally, Willigers and van Wee point out that, in the case of
Netherlands, it depends on the kind of HSR services: while “international HST services can have
a considerable impact on the attractiveness of an office location […], domestic HST services are
less important for location choices, because of the small domestic distances” (Willigers and van
Wee, 2011, p. 9).

2.2 Developments around central and peripheral HSR stations: a review
From an empirical point of view, the location of firms around central stations sometimes takes
time, and the firms present are not always those that one might expect (firms in highly qualified
sectors). Ultimately, though, firms do move in to occupy the business real‐estate programmes
induced by the arrival of HSR.
In Spain, Bellet et al. (2012) show that HSR services favour urban renewal around central
stations. In London, the Eurostar service at St Pancras has been considered a key factor in
encouraging the location of financial companies in the King’s Cross–St Pancras district (GLA,
2008, Bertolini and Spit, 1998, Murakami and Cervero, 2012). Similarly, in France, HSR has
induced urban renewal and associated dynamics around central stations, and their districts seem
to be successful, even if in some cases location decisions have been postponed by economic
crisis. This was the case for the Novaxis business district in Le Mans in 1993, for example, but
not in Reims, where available offices have been sold very quickly following their construction
(Bazin et al., 2009; Beckerich et al., 2016). Around peripheral stations, the literature shows
that business parks developed to coincide with the arrival of HSR were not successful, even
when local stakeholders had keenly anticipated the arrival, as shown by Fachinetti‐Mannone
(1997, 2010). In Vendôme, in the middle of the 1980s, a ZAD2 of 140 hectares was designed to
play host to a technological park, with serviced development plots made available according to
demand. The aim was to create 1,000 jobs (Bellanger, 1991). In 2004, nearly 15 years after the
inauguration of the Atlantic HSL (“LGV Atlantique” in French), only 16 companies had located
on this site near Vendôme TGV station (occupying just a little more than 8 hectares). In 2010,
this number had risen to 22, covering a mere 6.6% of the total surface area of the business park
(Fachinetti‐Mannone, 2010).
2 ZAD: a zone d’aménagement différé, or deferred‐development area, i.e. a planned development area where the public
authorities have compulsory‐purchase powers.

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