The Total Social Costs of Constructing and Operating a Maglev Line Using a Case Study of the Riyadh-Dammam Corridor, Saudi Arabia
298 ТРАНСПОРТНЫЕ СИСТЕМЫ И ТЕХНОЛОГИИ ОРИГИНАЛЬНЫЕ СТАТЬИ TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGY ORIGINAL STUDIES DOI 10.17816/transsyst201843s1298-327 © H. Almujibah, J. Preston University of Southampton, Transportation Research Group (Southampton, United Kingdom) THE TOTAL SOCIAL COSTS OF CONSTRUCTING AND OPERATING A MAGLEV LINE USING A CASE STUDY OF THE RIYADH-DAMMAM CORRIDOR, SAUDI ARABIA Background: Introducing Magnetic Levitation (Maglev) technology in a developing country is a big challenge that needs huge investments in infrastructure, operations and maintenance. Background information about the development of Maglev worldwide to date is included. Aim: Determine a methodology to estimate the full cost of travel and provide insights into the working model developed to include the calculations of the total social costs of building a new Maglev line for the Riyadh-Dammam corridor in Saudi Arabia and understand in what circumstances it is a suitable technology to use. Methods: The Spreadsheet Total Cost Model (STCM) is used to determine the calculations of operator costs, user costs, and environmental costs. However, the operator costs are related to infrastructure construction and maintenance costs, and costs associated with the acquisition, operation and maintenance of Maglev rolling stock. The user costs are dependent on the journey time, including access/egress time, waiting time, and in-vehicle time. The value of time is considered in order to get the user costs calculated. The external costs include air pollution, noise pollution, accident, and climate change per passenger-km. Results: The travel demand has to be forecasted in order to determine the total social costs, using the elasticity approach between the the proposed HSR and Maglev lines in terms of their number of trips and the generalised journey times.
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