High Speed Rail Terminals in a HUB – A Concept

Introduction

The objective of HSR (High Speed Rail) is to provide a fast rail based transport facility for inter regional movement of people or more specifically between cities. It is also the endeavour of HSR to cater to the maximum potential travel demand keeping in view the necessity of optimising the number of stations (or cities served) en-route and inter station distance to achieve the desired high average speed of the service.

Terminal in a HUB

HSR corridors are being planned across the country between a select pair of metropolitan and tourist attraction cities having potential for such services. Some of the cities may have more than one corridor connecting them to other cities. Such cities will form a HUB in the region as they serve more than one corridor. Movement of trains across corridors may / may not be planned. It is necessary to identify a location at which where each of the corridors terminates within the HUB such that transfer of passengers from one corridor to another is possible. The following options would arise for the identification of terminating points for each of the HSR corridors in a HUB.

OPT-1 – Directional Terminals – Each of the directional terminals (in the north, east, west and south directions) is connected by Hub Area Transportation System (HATS) i.e. existing local transportation network, for transfer of passengers from one corridor to the other.

OPT-2 – Central Terminal – Each of the corridors terminates at this terminal.

OPT-3 – Distributed Terminals – Is a set of inter connected terminals where a corridor terminates at one and passes through one or more other terminals in the set permitting another corridor to terminate at a different terminal in the set.

The impact of each of the three types of terminals as defined earlier is described herein after:

Directional terminals result in the use of HATS for transferring from one terminal to the other putting additional load on HATS. This, in other words, means segregation of local and through traffic is not achieved. This also results in two transfers, one from HSR-X terminal in the hub to HATS and the other from HATS to HSR-Y terminal in the hub.

Additionally, the inter city traffic that is generated in the hub area crisscrosses the hub area for accessing to and from any of the directional terminals. The impact of regional movements on the HAT network could conceptually be as shown.

Central Terminal permits passenger movement between cities from originating side of the HUB region to the destination end side through a single transfer. This eliminates the need to use HATS for transferring from one corridor to the other. This allows segregation of local and through traffic. Regional traffic passing through the hub area will not load the HAT network.

However, a central terminal results in a large terminal and may have associated constraints for development and dispersal of the resultant traffic generated around the central terminal in the Hub area.

HUB area generated regional traffic gravitates to the central terminal and results in loading of the HAT network and more specifically the transport network around the central terminal. The impact of regional movements on the HAT network could conceptually be as shown.

Distributed Terminals as conceptualized here aim to minimize the adverse impacts of Central and Directional Terminals and maximize the positive impacts of the said two terminal types. The set of terminals in this case essentially comprise of existing and proposed bus, metro and rail terminals as well as airport in the HUB area. These terminals are likely to generate regional traffic or which can act as access nodes for regional traffic generated in the HUB area with HAT network as feeder to the proposed HSR network. Each of these locations is a potential HSR terminal. The impact of regional movements on the HAT network could conceptually be as shown.

Here it is assumed that each of the directional corridors will have three access nodes in the HUB area. For example, the corridor connecting southern parts of the region or other regions in that direction will have its terminal at the northern end of the HUB area, and two additional access nodes one in the centre and the other at the southern end. Likewise, all the other corridors will have the terminal at the respective opposite ends of the hub area.

HUB Terminals - Most of the potential HUBs on HSR network are large in area and have an extensive transport network and of course are heavily loaded with intra HUB traffic as well. It is necessary to segregate the local (HUB) and regional traffic to the extent possible for efficient movement of traffic in the hub area.

A particular HSR corridor can be planned such that one of the nodes of this corridor within the hub area could function as a terminal point for another HSR corridor. This allows different origin/destination/transfer nodes within the hub area with interconnection of different HSR corridors facilitating smoother transfer from one HSR corridor to the other (at least some, if not all) and easing the planning of the traffic dispersal facilities at each node within the HUB area.

Corridor 1 (C-1) connecting the Nodes A and G in the same region as Node-A or another passes through Nodes B, C and D in hub area and Nodes E and F in the region. The terminal for Corridor C-1 is Node A. Nodes A to D are the locations of existing or proposed terminal locations of transport services in the HUB area. Corridor C-2 connecting Node H in the region can be planned such that its terminal in the hub area is at Node C. Likewise Corridor C-3 may have its terminal in the hub area at Node B. Alternatively, Corridors C-2 and C-3 can have a common terminal at Node B or C. Nodes H and I could be in different regions in the respective directions.

Distributed terminals will provide better access facilities to the potential HSR passengers.  These will also provide city managers with facilities to handle local and regional traffic more efficiently.