Secondary or no longer used rail infrastructures: a new tool for the regional railway and land planning

To reach an organized and sustainable development of the territory, it's implied that the choice of transportation methods must be related to the city form: compact or sprawl. Each area has its own features, opportunities and problems, which affect the user's preferences. Studies on new or upgraded lines have shown that, on opening or upgrading railway infrastructures or stations have increased the real value of both existing and new buildings located next to the station of the railway lines. This research intends to demonstrate how the process of locationing and the development of the rail transportation supply could re-organize the growth of the demand in exploited areas by providing an innovative contribution on transportation planning using the Smart Regional Railway [SRR] System. Analyses were performed using the software open source Qgis on three railway lines with different levels of exploitation: Civitavecchia-Orte unproductive line, Civitavecchia-Roma exploited line, Roma- Cesano-Viterbo enhanced line. Territorial indicators and transport indicators have been used. For the research purposes, it has been created a new index, called "Cross Section Space [Cross Section Spatial Index [CSSI]". The innovation of this index is the way real estate value was considered, namely depending on the distance from an efficient transportation system. The ultimate goal is to create an interpretation and simulation model based on quantitative indicators of land use that optimizes the existing regional rail transport, by modernizing and strengthening it (increasing the quality and quantity of supply) in areas where the current demand does not justify such action, but that, in the future, might play a leading role in the local development.