Citation

Mimeur C, Queyroi F, Banos A, Thévenin T. Hist. Methods 2018; 51(2): 65-81.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/01615440.2017.1393358

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The development of the French railway network was mostly planned in a centralized manner. Despite the multiplication of travel opportunities, the local impact on the demographics is often given as an indirect effect of this spatial transformation. However, this "structuring effect" is still subject to controversies within the academia.In this paper, we construct a historical geographic information system describing the evolution of the French network. We use it to compute accessibility measures based on network access and travel durations. We first observe that the network growth indeed achieved the various planning goals in terms of functional accessibility. We then present further evidences that the "structuring effect" of the train network on cities demographics is very limited if not null.

Language: en

Keywords

accessibility; French railroads; structuring effect; Transportation infrastructure