High-speed rail project in Turkey: Urban agglomeration and urban networks in the polycentric new world

Globalization has increased the role of the regions and restructured social and economic relations in networks covering large distances. High-speed rail (HSR) has the potential to integrate cities into mutually supportive networks over long distances and at the same time to support more sustainable forms of development. However, coordinated policy efforts are needed across national levels of governance and at different points in the life cycle of a project to make the HSR a sustainable investment. This research encompasses many scales of the physical environment and institutional sphere, examines ways of combining institutional change with technological change, and addresses the importance of uncertainty as the driving force of system behavior. With the HSR services, special attention is paid to smaller intermediate cities, which can be traveled daily to a large metropolis, focusing on inter-jurisdictional relations. Both Turkey and the United Kingdom plans HSR systems to provide mid-distance services (<250 km). In this thesis regional restructuring targets, projected to be under investigation by rail-commuter-city of Afyonkarahisar Turkey and compared HSR planning in Turkey and the United Kingdom. The potential of HSR to explore new ways of thinking about urbanization, regional connectivity and governance is under investigation. Local knowledge and policy are thought to improve the design and implementation of the HSR by helping to provide smooth interfaces between HSR and existing urban mobility systems. The development of decision-making structures that will work between geographical scales, institutional structures and long-term uncertainty will be critical in achieving 3E (Economy, Ecology and Equality) sustainability.