Factors Affecting the Energy Consumption of Selected High-Speed Railway Systems

Abstract The world economy experiences important changes including the increasing globalization of the economy, which may have a large impact on the transport system and the environment, particularly the continuing emission of greenhouse gasses. High Speed Railways (HSR) which are expanding in track length and coverage are the most sustainable way for transporting passengers and goods as they operate on an electrified network. Considering the fact, that an HSR system is an energy-intensive transport system, it is important economically and environmentally to reduce the amount of energy used. There are important lessons that can be learned for the future development of HSR. In this research, the non-radial Data Envelopment Analyses (DEA) methodology has been used to estimate the dynamic changes in the total energy consumption for seven HSR systems over the period of 2010-2017 and to benchmark the most energy efficient HSR systems. Key influencing factors of the sustainability of HSR are considered here, including the existing HSRS (High Speed Rolling Stock), number of passengers and power consumed by the HSR. The research findings have shown that changes in energy consumption by the selected operators of HSRs during the period 2010-2017 have a strong correlation with the type of HSRS. The expected outcomes of this research will contribute to the development and advances of more sustainable HSR systems. Keywords: sustainability, high-speed railway, energy, efficiency, key influencing factors