Integration of Rail Systems within a Metropolis: A Case Study of Wuxi City

Railway is regarded as a preferred service reducing the increasing urban traffic congestion and restraining urban sprawl as a public transport mode of high capacity, and therefore is widely adopted. Some of the Chinese metropolises have built the rail systems including high-speed rail, intercity rail, conventional rail, metro, light rail, etc. Integrating the coexisting rail systems is necessary to avoid internal competition and to attract new transit riders. The paper applies comparison and analysis to distinguish the suited service targets of each rail. The correlation between the designed travel speed and the station spacing of the popular rails in a metropolis is analyzed also to identify what demand each may meet. While metro and light-rails mainly serve the urban riders, high-speed and intercity rails carry long-trip travel passengers. There is a lack of rail services for medium-trips as the conventional rail cannot satisfy the travel demand in a metropolis if there are no alternatives. The paper draws the conclusion that either improving the present conventional rail or building a new suburban rail to feed the intercity rail or metro is needed for the rail integration. Some of the research results are introduced into the rail plan in Wuxi City.