The Study On The Social Benefits Of Urban Rail Transit

Urban Rail Transit is favored for having a series of advantages, such as land saving, large volume. It plays an important role in easing traffic pressure, so it is very popular for cities to build it in China. However, judging from urban rail transit lines which have been put into operation, there are very few lines that could get profit either domestic or abroad, and this phenomenon makes the construction of urban rail transit is full of controversy. As a quasi public good, the social benefits brought by urban rail transit are considerable. So it is important to analyze and measure the social benefits of urban rail transit. Based on Shenzhen metro, this study have analyzed the mechanism of social effect of urban rail transit, and then measured the social benefits.Based on the literature review of the social benefits both domestic and abroad, this study have summarized the quantitative research methods on social benefits, analyzed the mechanism of social effect of urban rail transit, measured the social benefits produced by Shenzhen metro, and analyzed the ways of returning of social benefits. For the social benefits in construction period, this study have analyzed the mechanism of direct investment effect mainly, which was measured quantitatively by C-D production function, and the result is 9.527 billion yuan; For the social benefits in operation period, this study have analyzed the mechanism of the social effect, in this process, eight indicators could analyzed quantitatively were summarized: inducing flow, reducing operating cost, reducing travel time, improving production efficiency, reducing accidents, reducing air pollution, saving energy and land resources, based on that, this study have analyzed and estimated them respectively with relevant data from Shenzhen metro, the result is that, during the year 2005~2008 in the operation period, the social benefits are 7.216 billion Yuan, 11.747 billion Yuan, 16.124 billion Yuan, 19.4 billion Yuan respectively; For the land value-added effect of urban rail transit, this study have analyzed its mechanism, summarized previous research, found that the land value-added benefit of Shenzhen metro during 1998~2003 is 33.536 billion yuan, which is 2.916 times of the total cost.Our study found that: (1) The social benefits brought by urban rail transit are considerable. (2) Part of the social benefits brought by urban rail transit should be returned to the urban rail transit enterprise, to support the sustainable development of urban rail transit. The measures can be taken includes: setting up special fund for urban rail transit, land joint development, selling travel insurance and so on.