Modal Choice for High-Speed Railway Systems: The Italian Case Study

High-Speed Railway (HSR) systems have established worldwide for their technical characteristics, which wherever they are built have allowed greater economic, social and environmental sustainability of transport. 60,000 km of HSR in operation and 60,000 km under construction or design testify to the increasing importance of HSR systems. For the planning of new lines and for the monitoring of the current ones, it is necessary to have knowledge of modal choice that allow us to evaluate the goodness of the infrastructure investments and the validity of the services offered to users. To this end, it is essential to collect data on users’ choices in the current situation. The overall results obtained provide valuable insights for understanding current transport flows and provide a basis for analysing future trends resulting from the introduction of new HSR lines in southern Italy. The effectiveness of the HSR system depends on the consistency between technical planning and design choices and international standards. Verifying this consistency is made possible by an in-depth analysis of demand, carried out using mobility data. The preliminary results obtained represent a first step in this direction.