How can high speed railway survive the competition from civil aviation?

Abstract

With the implementation of Medium and Long Term Railway Network Plan 2008, Chinese high speed railway gradually came into being. In order to cope with competition from high speed railway, civil aviation put forward comprehensive strategies including cost, big-client, on-web check-in, price and etc. Under such a circumstance, it's of great importance for high speed railway to adopt corresponding strategies to improve its core competence. High speed railway and civil aviation have their comparative advantages as to distance, speed, price, safety and energy consumption and etc. Time model shows that, within 1,000 km, high speed railway dominates market share because of its time saving characteristics, while above 1,000 km, civil aviation has comparative advantage. In order to improve consumer's surplus and gain market competition edge, high speed railway can take strategies of product, price, place, promotion, resource, competition and cooperation, knot and informationization. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013.