A Study on High-Speed Railway Pricing Based on the Competition against Civil Aviation

Competition between civil aviation (CA) and high-speed rail (HSR) is getting fiercer on medium- and long-distance routes as a result of the HSR’s ongoing enhancement of service qualities. This study offers a ticket pricing approach for HSR accounting for passenger service perception levels and modifying pricing strategies in response to short-term fluctuations in CA ticket prices. Based on user equilibrium, a bi-level programming seat pricing model is built and solved by the sensitivity analysis method. The upper decision-making goal is to maximize the revenue of the HSR firm, and the lower decision-making goal is to reduce the overall passenger travel cost. Taking the Beijing-Changsha passenger corridor as an example, the fundamental parameters of the travel cost function are set by RP surveys. As shown by comparing current fares, the improved pricing strategies can effectively boost the HSR revenue when the fares are modestly raised without harming passengers’ willingness to travel.