Research on Competition between High-speed Rail and Air Transport in China

As Beijing-Tianjin and Wuhan-Guangzhou highspeed rail opened to traffic, China railway passenger transport line is coming into a high-speed era while the operation of high-speed rail will squeeze air transport market share. This paper has chosen four measure indexes of analysis, time cost, economic cost, comfort and safety, on the basis of the elaboration of the competition between high-speed rail and air transport as well as the analysis of recessive factors which influence travelers' transportation choice. In addition, taking the transport distance as the primary variable, we established a competition model of high-speed rail and air transport by means of the Logit equation based on utility theory. Through the application example of the calculation of the constructed models and analysis by combining high-speed rail and air transportation competitive chart, a conclusion has been obtained that when the transport distance falls in the 600-1400 kilometers range, the substituted effect of high-speed rail reaches the peak and competition becomes most fierce. Finally, we analyzed the influence of the price fluctuation of high-speed rail upon the changes of the competition for the distance between the two.