The influence of passenger rail interventions in London on relative deprivation in affected station catchment areas

This paper investigates the relationship between passenger rail interventions in Greater London and deprivation indices in affected station catchment areas. Interventions were selected for study only if they were associated with a significant change in jobs accessibility. It makes use of the difference-in-difference (DiD) research technique to test if these interventions have been associated with improvements in the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) ranking for the Lower-layer Super Output Areas (LSOAs) within a 15-minute walking time of a station affected by the intervention. Though the study finds that a positive relationship is observed in all three case studies, in none is this relationship statistically significant. These findings illustrate the difficulties in demonstrating a relationship between passenger rail interventions and reductions in social and material deprivation, with consequences for future directions of policy and the practice of transport appraisal.