Assessing some social and environmental effects of transforming an airport into a real multimodal transport node

This paper deals with assessing some social and environmental effects of transforming a large airport into a real multimodal transport node. Such transformation implies connecting this given airport to the High-Speed Rail (HSR) transport network, which enables the substitution of certain Air Passenger Transport (APT) mainly short-haul flights with equivalent HSR services. This substitution can occur through competition and/or because of complementarity of the two modes. The effects include potential savings in the quantities and related costs of social and environmental impacts such as airport airside delays, noise, and local and global emissions of greenhouse gases. A methodology for quantifying these savings is developed and applied to a large European airport according to the “what-if” scenario approach.

Research highlights► The paper examines effects of transforming large airport into a multimodal transport node by connecting it to the HSR (High Speed Rail) network. ► This would enable substitution of some short-haul flights at the airport by the equivalent HSR services. ► It was found that such substitution at London Heathrow airport (UK) would contribute to mitigating noise nuisance and green house gas emissions but particularly the airside (runway) congestion.