Land enhancement and intensification benefits of investing in an urban rail network

Authorities around the world are constantly evaluating new ways to justify the implementation of capital intensive transport infrastructure such as urban rail solutions. Traditionally, the benefits of an urban rail line are calculated on the basis of user benefits such as savings in travel time, vehicle operating costs, accident costs and environmental costs, and more recently wider economic benefits. An alternative approach that is sometimes used is to consider the appreciation of property prices along a rail corridor, and the intensification of land development surrounding a rail station. Using the development of new rail lines in Singapore as a case study, this paper will first apply the hedonic regression method to obtain estimates of elasticity between property price and transport accessibility. Secondly, using historical land use masterplans, the paper will discuss how the density of land use adjacent to rail stations has intensified over the past 15 years, through a comparative analysis of the land use density with respect to the distance to a rail station. Finally, with the North East Line as an example, the alternative approach comprising the land value enhancement of existing properties and the land intensification due to proximity to the line will be compared against the conventional user benefits.