The role of commuter rail accessibility in the formation of residential land values: exploring spatial heterogeneity in peri-urban and remote areas

As an alternative to private car, rail accessibility is part of environmental policies. The effects of light or heavy rail have been widely covered by the literature in urban areas. High-speed rail accessibility has been extensively studied at national or regional scales as well. In-between, only few studies have considered commuter rail accessibility at the scale of metropolitan areas. However, more and more households in Europe have been settling in peri-urban or remote areas around large conurbations, driven by the significant increase in residential land values since 2000. In this article, we aimed to uncover, through hedonic pricing, the effect of commuter rail accessibility in the formation of residential land values in the Loire-Atlantique Département in France (around the conurbation of Nantes Métropole). We used at first an ordinary least square model (OLS). Since nonlinear relationship between proximity to public transport and land values is commonly assumed, we previously applied a generalized additive model (GAM) that revealed threshold effects. To explore spatial heterogeneity in the relationship between commuter rail accessibility and residential land values, we used subsequently a multiscale geographically weighted regression model (MGWR). We found sound evidence of commuter rail accessibility effect in two specific areas: in the peri-urban area of Nantes Métropole, North of the conurbation, and in a remote area, in the Western part of the Département. The emphasis of commuter rail accessibility should help decision-makers to convert rail stations into multimodal exchange poles to contain the modal share of private car in peri-urban and remote areas.