Introduction
The UIC Alliance of Universities was established in 2015 under the authority of the UIC (International Union of Railways) for the development of High-Speed Rail (HSR). The Alliance is a global academic network including universities, institutes of technology, polytechnics, engineering, architecture and business schools that have proven substantial involvement in the development of HSR. The objective of the Alliance is to promote and implement research programmes on the development of HSR; to improve education in HSR; to exchange and disseminate know-how between Universities and UIC members; to develop outstanding talents with HSR expertise.
Within these activities, Prof. Francesca Pagliara, member of the Alliance and Professor of transportation engineering at the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering of the Polytechnic and Basic Sciences School of the University of Naples Federico II, is glad to launch the call for papers for the 6th International Symposium on High-Speed Rail Socioeconomic Impacts.
Following the success of the previous five editions, UIC has decided to support this initiative annually to be organised by the University of Naples Federico II. The aim of this Symposium is to explore recent research on the analysis and quantification of the effects, both on economy and on society, of investments in HSR systems.
Papers focusing on the impacts on productivity; on the land use system, such as activity and residential location choice; on the tourism industry; on the property market as well as on pricing policies; on project evaluation; on competition and integration with other transport modes; on equity and inclusion, etc. are welcome. Papers will be accepted for presentation at the Symposium, describing either a theoretical or an empirical perspective approach.
Submission
Abstracts of 500 words should be sent to Prof. Francesca Pagliara, email: fpagliar at unina.it by 15 May 2026, writing in the subject “IS-HSR”.
Proceedings of the Symposium will be published by Springer in the book series “Business and Economics” (indexed in Scopus).
Deadlines
Deadline for abstracts submission: 15 May 2026
Deadline for acceptance of abstracts: 30 May 2026
Deadline for full paper submission: 15 November 2026
Best Paper Award
Two best paper awards will be assigned. The first one of 500 USD will be sponsored by the Asian Development Bank Institute. The second one of 200 EUR will be sponsored by the Italian Society of Transport Economics and Logistics. To participate in the award competition ONLY extended abstracts of 1,000 words will be taken into consideration, reporting a detailed description of the methodology and the results.
Registration
You can register here free of charge a Microsoft Teams link will be sent to you by the 4th September 2026 to participate in the Symposium event:
Programme
8th September 2026
13:00 -14:15 CET | Symposium opening remarks
Moderator Prof. Francesca Pagliara (Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, Italy)
Prof. Francesco Pirozzi (Head of the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, Italy)
Mr Bertrand Minary (UIC Director of Freight and Passenger Departments, Coordinator of Middle East and Latin American Regions)
Mr Michele Gesualdi (UIC HSR Advisor)
Mr Alberto Mazzola (CER Executive Director, Brussels)
Mr Graham Nelmes (General Manager Customer, Place & Operations High Speed Rail Authority, Australia)
14:15-14:45 CET | Keynote
Prof. Erik Verhoef – Professor of Spatial Economics, VU University Amsterdam, the Netherlands – Socioeconomic impacts of HSR investment: A spatial general equilibrium perspective
14:45-15:00 CET | Break
15:00-16:40 CET | Session 1 – HSR and Investment 1
Chairman Dr. C-L. Chen (University of Liverpool, UK)
15:00-15:20 | Beyond the balance sheet: Financing governance models of Asian mainline HSR and implications for emerging economies – Y. Dou and Tuyet N. T. (Tongji University, China; CoreVantage Ltd., Vietnam)
15:20-15:40 | High-Speed Rail yield management: the role of booking curves in pricing and capacity control – Prokop R., Vojtek M. and Molková T. (University of Pardubice, Czech Republic)
15:40-16:00 | Geographies of High-Speed Rail: What we have learned from 60 years of operation – Goetz A. R., C-L. Chen and Dobruszkes F. (University of Denver, USA; University of Liverpool, UK; Free University of Brussels, Belgium)
16:00-16:20 | Numerical analysis of passenger time costs and investment impacts of High-Speed Rail – Ozturk H. N. (Emirler Railway Systems Ltd, Turkey)
16:20-16:40 | Understanding the indirect environmental impacts of High-Speed Rail: A socio-economic mediation perspective – Ardıç Ö. (Turkish State Railways, Turkey)
16:40-17:10 | Keynote: Pro. Anthony Perl – Professor of Urban Studies and Political Science, Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada – How could High-Speed Rail’s urban effects as seen in China translate to California?
17:10-17:20 CET | Break
17:20-19:00 CET | Session 2 – HSR and Investment 2
Chairman Prof. Frédéric Dobruszkes (Free University of Brussels, Belgium)
17:20-17:40 | An exploratory study to investigate the impact of High-Speed Rail on Passengers’ Subjective Well-Being – Moradpour A., Bashir T. and Pagliara F. (University of Naples Federico II, Italy)
17:40-18:00 | Predicting and valuing High-Speed Rail reliability: Severe delay mitigation and socioeconomic impact assessment – Di Ruocco I. (University of Trieste, Italy)
18:00-18:20 | Beyond the nine-million threshold: Demand and social profitability across the Spanish High-Speed Rail network – Monfort I., Folgueira C., Devesa J., Mesa A., Seseña E., Alarcos G. A., Sánchez J.M. and Jaro L. (Ineco, Spain; Adif Alta Velocidad, Spain; Adif, Spain)
18:20-18:40 | The social impact of High-Speed Rail from consolidated frameworks to innovative references and tools – Martini S., Ravagnan C., Errico A., Becchetti A., Nardoni S., Castiello E., Tartaglia M. and Fiduccia A. (FS Engineering, Italy; FS Research Centre - Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane S.p.A., Italy)
18:40-19:00 | How the design of high-speed rail services affects the socio-economic sustainability of the investment? – Tartaglia M., Cieri E., Tersigni D., Costagli G., Ragno F., Angelino A. and Vannacci L. (FS Research Centre - Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane S.p.A., Italy; Rete Ferroviaria Italiana, Italy)
9th September 2026
09:00-09:30 CET | Keynote
Prof. Roger Vickerman – Visiting Professor, Transport Strategy Centre, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Imperial College London, UK and Emeritus Professor of European Economics, University of Kent, UK – High-speed rail and international traffic in Europe: putting aspirations back on track
09:30-11:10 CET | Session 3 – HSR and Investment 3
Chairman Prof. D. Li (Beijing Jiaotong University, China)
09:30-09:50 | Cost-Benefit and market competitiveness analysis of High-Speed Rail, Aviation, and Maglev – L. Qin, D. Li and Y. Zhao (Beijing Jiaotong University, China)
09:50-10:10 | The real costs of speed: A maturity-adjusted, cross-geography benchmark of HSR, Maglev and Hyperloop – D. Li, Pagliara F., Preston J. and Scarci S. (Beijing Jiaotong University, China; University of Naples Federico II, Italy; University of Southampton, UK; EY Advisory S.p.A.)
10:10-10:30 | Within-day analysis of national intercity passengers’ mobility with High-Speed Rail services: an Italian survey based on telco data – Russo F., Musolino G., Sgro D. and Rindone C. (Università Mediterranea of Reggio Calabria, Italy)
10:30-10:50 | The renaissance of night trains: would the future be on high-speed? A case-study from Italy – Capurso M., Leonetti V. and Tartaglia M. (Trenitalia S.p.A., Italy; FS Research Centre - Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane S.p.A., Italy)
10:50-11:10 | Beyond transport: Measuring Trenitalia’s value for communities and territories – Antonias N., Cerquenich M., Vannacci L., Chippari G., Mari P., Della Camera E. and Capurso M. (Trenitalia S.p.A., Italy; FS Research Centre - Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane S.p.A., Italy)
11:10-11:20 CET | Break
11:20-13:00 CET | Session 4 – HSR and Land-use Impacts 1
Chairman Prof. Pagliara F. (University of Naples Federico II, Italy)
11:20-11:40 | Enhancing Mobility and Accessibility through Integrated High-Speed Rail and Inland Waterway Transport Systems in Eastern Nigeria – Nze N. J. and Nze I. C. (Federal University of Technology Owerri Nigeria, Africa)
11:40-12:00 | Timescales of High-Speed Rail station area development in urban China: From the perspective of matching urban physical development and functional vitality – X. Zhang and L. Wang (Chinese Academy of Sciences, China)
12:00-12:20 | Ground deformation along a High-Speed Railway corridor: A sentinel-1 SBAS InSAR assessment of the Tokaido Shinkansen using Google Earth Engine – Tanyag I. H. (University of the Philippines Diliman, Philippines)
12:20-12:40 | The Impact of High-Speed Rail on property prices: A machine learning approach based on bibliometric analysis – Bashir T., Di Ruocco I., Moradzadeh A. and Pagliara F. (University of Trieste, Italy; University of Naples Federico II, Italy)
12:40-13:00 | High-Speed Rail and housing market dynamics in Italy: A machine learning approach – Di Ruocco I.; Moradzadeh A., Bahir T. and Pagliara F. (University of Trieste, Italy; University of Naples Federico II, Italy)
13:00-13:15 CET | 1st Best Paper Award assignment sponsored by the Asian Development Bank Institute
Moderator Prof. Francesca Pagliara (Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, Italy)
Mr. KE Seetha Ram (Senior Consulting Specialist, Asian Development Bank Institute, Japan)
13:15-14:00 CET | Break
14:00-16:00 CET | Session 5 – HSR and Land-use Impacts 2
Chairman Prof. Beria P. (Polytechnic of Milan, Italy)
14:20-14:40 | Beyond train speed: A door-to-door analysis of High-Speed Rail travel chains and passenger time valuation in Shanghai, China – X. Wang, H. Pan, Y. Dou and Pagliara F. (Tongji University, China; University of Naples Federico II, Italy)
14:40-15:00 | Delivering high ridership: Why mid-sized cities should build HSR stations in the core, not the periphery – Malott P. (P7 Strategies, USA)
15:00-15:20 | The station as a value engine: A multi-dimensional framework for High-Speed Rail – Wong B. and Calimente J. (Access Planning, Canada; City of Vancouver, Canada)
15:20-15:40 | From siting to integration: An international comparative review of HSR station area development pathways and associated institutional-spatial outcomes – X. Tu and L. Wang (Chinese Academy of Sciences, China)
15:40-16:00 | The chimera of speed: assessing high-speed rail accessibility in European intermediate territories – De Angelis F. and Beria P. (Polytechnic of Milan, Italy)
16:00-16:10 CET | Break
16:10-17:30 CET | Session 6 – HSR and Land-use Impacts 3
Chairman Prof. Z. Chen (The Ohio State University, USA)
16:10-16:30 | Beyond demand: Evaluating scale alignment in China’s High-Speed Rail network through an urban scaling-gravity approach – Z. Chen, X. Li and C. Wang (The Ohio State University, USA; Chongqing Jiaotong University, China)
16:30-16:50 | High-Speed Rail and spatial reallocation of firms: Agglomeration or dispersion effects? Quantitative evidence from the Italian context – Martiniello L., Olivieri F. M., Vargiu M. and Tartaglia M. (FS Engineering, Italy; Mercatorum University, Italy; FS Research Centre - Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane S.p.A., Italy)
16:50-17:10 | A methodological reassessment of High-Speed Rail accessibility impacts through the transport connectivity metric: application to the Italian case study – Montenegro E., Naimo A. and Tartaglia M. (University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, Italy; FS Research Centre - Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane S.p.A., Italy)
17:10-17:30 | The catchment area of High-Speed Rail stations in Italy: An analysis based on mobile phone big data – Henke I., Falanga A., Tartaglia M., Vannacci L., Bonvicini C., Galieni L. and Cascetta E. (Mercatorum University, Italy; University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Italy; FS Research Centre - Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane S.p.A., Italy; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA)
17:30-18:50 CET | Session 7 – HSR and Competition
Chairman Prof. Gomez J. (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain)
17:30-17:50 | Ticket flexibility and strategic revenue management in High-Speed Rail competition: evidence from the Italian Market – Shtele E., Crotti D. and Koshmak V. (University of Insubria, Italy; Pskov State University, Russia)
17:50-18:10 | Analysing the impact of HSR liberalization on people’s interurban mode choice. Empirical evidence from Spain – Gomez J., Aguilera-Garcia A., Romero C. and Zamorano C. (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain)
18:10-18:30 | Analysis of modal competition between Air travel and High-Speed Rail: Southern Italy case study – Musolino G., Moschella M. and Russo F. (Università Mediterranea of Reggio Calabria, Italy)
18:30-18:50 | High-Speed Rail and Air transport competition: A game theoretical approach to a potential European case study – Shtele E., Pantelaki E., Bashir T. and Pagliara F. (Emirates Aviation University Academic City, United Arab Emirates; University of Insubria, Italy; University of Naples Federico II, Italy)
18:50-19:10 | Competition or Complementarity? High-Speed Rail and Domestic Aviation in Turkey – Sengur F. K. (Eskisehir Technical University, Turkey)
19:10-19:30 CET | 2nd Best Paper Award assignment sponsored by the Italian Society of Transport Economics and Logistics
Prof. Claudio Ferrari (President of the Italian Society of Transport Economics and Logistics, University of Genoa, Italy)
Symposium closing remarks
Prof. Francesca Pagliara (Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, Italy)
Organising Committee
Prof. Francesca Pagliara – Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, Italy
Mr Michele Gesualdi - UIC
Mrs Helen Slaney - UIC
Scientific Committee for the Best Paper Awards assignment sponsored by the Asian Development Bank Institute and the Italian Society of Transport Economics and Logistics
Dr Oliviero Baccelli - Bocconi University, Italy
Prof. Elena Maggi - University of Insubria, Italy
Prof. Francesca Pagliara - University of Naples Federico II, Italy
Mr. KE Seetha Ram - Asian Development Bank Institute, Japan