Railways and urban expansion: how does rail transport affect urban expansion in metropolitan areas? (Warsaw and Copenhagen case)

ABSTRACT Railway transportation plays a key role in the formation of the spatial structure of metropolitan areas. The metropolitan areas with coherent and regular railways seem to have more disciplined spatial development. The present study aims to express the relationship between the railways and the discipline of spatial structure using a developmental-applied approach. To this end, two metropolitan areas with railway coverage are selected as case studies, and four methods of minimum-distance estimation, spatial regression, fractal geometry, and cellular automata are used to analyze the data. The results indicate that the railway plays a direct role in urban expansion so that, in Copenhagen with an orderly railway network, urban development is channelized around the railway but in Warsaw with a more complicated railway network, urban expansion is more dispersed and located around rail intersections.