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Airline and railway disintegration in China: the case of Shanghai Hongqiao Integrated Transport Hub

governments. Local planning departments and transportation departments will determine
the ground access to the airports, in conjunction with the airport authorities.

From a regulatory perspective, Shanghai Hongqiao Integrated Transport Hub consists largely
of two components: the railway station and the ‘international airport’ (although most of the
flights are domestic). The railway station is under the direct jurisdiction of Shanghai Railway
Bureau, which is one of 18 railway bureaus administered by China Railway Corporation,
while the airport is currently administered by Shanghai Airport Authority (SAA), which is the
state-owned enterprise directly under the jurisdiction of Shanghai Municipal Government.
SAA is the regulatory body that is also responsible for Shanghai Pudong International Airport.
The regulatory link between the SAA (operating the airports) and the CAAC (regulating
air transport) is through the airlines using Shanghai’s airports. The main operators within
Hongqiao hub are all profit maximization entities. In summary, while the railways are the
only mode of transport in China that is centrally planned, the airports are usually locally
planned.

4. Current and future air–rail integration

The close proximity of a major airport and a railway station provides for an almost ideal
starting point for air-rail integration. At present, however, this integration is relatively
limited as appears from the survey of railway passengers reported above. Nevertheless,
some form of integration does exist. Three airlines have signed agreements with Shanghai
Railway Bureau to provide integrated air–rail services in the YRD area: China Eastern
(largest airline at the hub by daily departures), Spring Airlines (4th largest) and Air
China (6th largest) and the profile of destinations they serve by rail is shown in Table
2. The rail services offered by airlines are designated a flight number but otherwise
are not different from nonairline rail services. The frequency of air–rail services varies
and in somecases considered to be in a trial period. Overall, the existing frequency
of air–rail integration services is relatively limited in scope and is confined to nearby
cities in the YRD region. A round of interviews⁹ suggested that also in the eyes of local
experts and policy makers, the level of air–rail integration, despite the progress being
made, is low (compared by the interviewees to that at Frankfurt airport for example).
At Hongqiao hub, luggage cannot be seamlessly transferred from the rail station to
airport, it must be checked in twice. Another form of integration that currently exists
allows passengers to check in for their flight at Kunshan bus station, about 45 kms from
the airport and then be transported by bus to either Hongqiao or Pudong airports, a
form of road–air integration.

Given that the Integrated Hub concept in China is still relatively new, a long-term view
of air-rail integration is required. Such a view is provided by a forecast of the daily
number of passengers transferring between the different modes at the hub in 2020
(Table 3). Considering an average estimate of the range provided in each cell of Table 3,
it is clear that in 2020 the transfer of passengers within the integrated hub is expected
to be between the long (air and rail) and the short distance (urban) modes of transport.
The transfer of passengers from aircraft torail (HSR and Intercity) is expected to be 6000
daily passengers, about 11% of the airport passengers. Another 3100 daily passengers
are expecting to transfer from the aircraft to the Maglev rail services (if they will be
built), the majority (2500 passengers) to the planned interairport Maglev service, thus
transfer from air to air using a Maglev ground transportation service.

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