Page 143 - 360.revista de Alta Velocidad - Nº 6

Central versus Peripheral High-Speed Rail Stations: Opportunities For Companies to Relocate?
The cases of Reims Central Station and Champagne-Ardenne Station

Similarly, in Mâcon, the 55‐hectare business park developed to attract company head offices
3
and government offices (Ellenberg, 2011), was still not fully occupied over 20 years after the
arrival of HSR. In 1997, there were just two companies (Mannone, 1997). In 2010 – nearly 30
years later – 45 firms were located there; the business units are nearly all full but the office
buildings created in the mid‐1990s are not. In Montchanin–Le Creusot, the Coriolis business
park was not a success. Only four companies, corresponding to 147 jobs, were located there
10 years after the area was developed (Mannone, 1997). In 2010, there were 24 companies and
252 jobs (Fachinetti‐Mannone, 2010). In Valence, six years after the first companies moved in,
the occupancy rate in the area is only 10%. The tertiary park works well, but there are only five
companies on the 45 Parallel business park (Fachinetti‐Mannone, 2010).
e
Comparing ex‐metropolitan stations, that is to say stations located in the periphery of London,
Paris and Madrid, Mohino et al. (2014) show that a moderate distance from the metropolitan
core (20– 35 km) combined with efficient transport connections to central areas increases the
potential for creating new centralities in the metropolitan area when they are linked to major
infrastructure. This is the case for stations at Marne‐la‐Vallée Chessy and Charles de Gaulle
airport in Paris, and for Stratford International station (near the Olympic Park site) in London.
By contrast, office relocation is more difficult when stations are much more than 50 km from
the city centre.

Central stations thus seem to be characterized by greater dynamism than peripheral stations;
the question now is to identify the reasons why the districts around these stations attract
companies with relative ease while those around peripheral stations are less attractive.

2.3 High‐speed rail service and location choice around central or peripheral
stations: theoretical background

Several theoretical arguments can be put forward to explain the location of companies around
central or peripheral stations.
First, economic base theory (Hoyt, 1954) points out that business services depend on an
industrial base and that their location requires proximity with industrial users. Market proximity
will be favoured by the improved accessibility brought by HSR. HSR allows firms to minimize
distancerelated obstacles and visit their clients located in connected cities. Indeed, in compliance
with gravity models, distance is thought to have an effect on the intensity of exchanges: by
reducing the time taken to cover the distance between the cities served, HSR services may
enable service‐sector companies to develop these exchanges and even broaden their market
area (Ollivro, 1997, Preston, 2009, Willigers et al., 2011). In other words, ‘‘everything is related
to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things” (Tobler, 1970, p.
236). Consequently, HSR could benefit the service industries (Bonnafous, 1987; Preston, 2009,
Albalate, Bel, 2012). Activities requiring plenty of travel could take advantage of HSR (Ollivro,
1997). Such is the case for firms with a national or even international market (Pol, 2003) (e.g.
design and engineering consultancies, advertising agencies, marketing consultancies), but less
so for those who have a mainly local or regional market (e.g. accountancy firms, legal firms,
human‐resources consultancies). HSTs could therefore play a more significant role for firms
with a customer base outside their region (Bricout, 1996, Willigers, 2011) or, in the case of
France, those that implement a strategy of expansion beyond the Parisian market (Buisson,
1986).
Second, since time is money, HSR services can reduce general transport costs. The increase
in accessibility may result in an increase in productivity and competitiveness (Preston,
2009, Vickerman and Ulied, 2006, Martin, 1997, INSEE, 2017). Improved connectivity may be
transformed into increased competitiveness for firms located in cities connected to the HSR

3 Initially, in 1982, the business park covered 5 hectares; it was expanded to 55 hectares in 1993.

International Congress on High-speed Rail: Technologies and Long Term Impacts - Ciudad Real (Spain) - 25th anniversary Madrid-Sevilla corridor 141