Differential Pricing Analysis Of High-Speed Railway Based On Demand Elasticity

With the development of transportation,China's railway undertaking has also experienced unprecedented leap forward and the railway construction is in full swing,especially for high-speed railway(HSR),which stands at the forefront of development in the field of transportation.At present,China's HSR has basically built the backbone network of "four horizontal and four vertical lines",and is moving towards the goal of"eight vertical and eight horizontal lines".Bullet trains gradually become the preferred means of transportation for mass travel?Meanwhile,the problems exposed during the rapid development of HSR need to be concerned:firstly,the high debt ratio caused by heavy investment on infrastructure has led to great economic pressure to related rail enterprises;secondly,the pressure from other transport modes,especially the civil aviation industry,limits the further development of HSR.Besides,and the occupancy rate of the HSR is pretty low for some areas,leading to waste of transport capacity resources.It is of great significance to develop a scientific and reasonable pricing system of HSR for the promotion of rational allocation of resources and enhancement of economic benefits of railway enterprises.Therefore,the pricing mechanism of HSR needs to be adjusted.This paper firstly analyzes the relevant policies of matured HSR pricing mechanism in foreign countries and the problems of current status in China.Secondly,it conducts research on the influence factors of HSR transport demand from the view of demand elasticity and attempts to put forward feasible pricing strategy based on the theory of market segmentation and price discrimination theory based on it.Thereafter,by issuing questionnaires,it selects the Beijing-Tianjin inter-city railway and Beijing-Shanghai HSR as examples to analyze main factors influencing the passenger transport demands in Beijing-Tianjin and Beijing-Shanghai railway sections and measure the demand elasticity of the two typical railroad sections respectively.Lastly,according to the data measurement results,China's HSR is a flexible product in the slack season of non-peak passenger transport while the transport demand elasticity of peak passenger transport in the peak season is close to rigidity;the longer the transport distance,the larger the demand elasticity is;the demand elasticity varies depending on travel purposes.As a result,it should aim at the slack and peak seasons,the length of transport distance and different markets to implement different price strategies,explore to construct the segmented pricing strategies appropriate to circumstances in China with flexibility and flexible discount so as to promote the constant enhancement of economic and social benefits of high-speed railway.