Accessibility impacts of China’s high-speed rail network

The large-scale implementation of High-Speed Rail (HSR) network in China not only offers a new option for travelers’ mode choice, but also may influence, or even generate, the redistribution of demographic and economic activities. As has been observed over the past several years in other countries, the impact of HSR spans a wide range. However, few quantitative studies have been conducted to measure this impact. As a new attempt, this study uses accessibility analysis for quantifying the impact of China’s HSR network. Weighted average travel times and travel costs, contour measures, and potential accessibility are employed as indicators of accessibility at the macro or national level. Forty-nine major cities in the HSR network are used in the accessibility analysis. Accessibility quantification and spatial distribution analysis for the study cities are performed on a Geographical Information System (GIS) platform. Accessibilities associated with varying availabilities of HSR, conventional rail, and airline are estimated and compared. The selected indicators and computational methods are found effective in evaluating the accessibility impacts of HSR from different conceptualization strategies and perspectives. They also offer complementary information on accessibility capacity of the study cities created by the HSR network.     

Impacts of high-speed rail on the inequality of intercity accessibility: A case study of Liaoning Province,China

The rapid development of Chinese high-speed rail (HSR) not only improves the convenience of daily transportation, but also promotes the regional economy of cities along the HSR lines. Accessibility improvement and spatial inequality reduction caused by HSR would play a positive role in transportation development projects appraisal and help achieve the regional coordinated development. Our purpose is to assess how much improvement of economic potential accessibility can each city get from the HSR based on the existing highway and HSR networks, as well as the changes in spatial disparity and accessibility distribution patterns. Taking Liaoning Province as a case, this paper studies the spatial pattern and inequality of accessibility in two intercity transportation scenarios using a gravity-based model. The sensitivity analysis of the parameter and the test of different mass indicators are also conducted. The results show that cities in the central areas have better accessibility than peripheral areas. Cities in the peripheral areas and near the HSR lines tend to benefit more from HSR. The inequality of accessibility decreases a lot in cities with HSR access but only has a minor reduction on a whole scale.     

The impacts of high-speed rail extensions on accessibility and spatial equity changes in South Korea from 2004 to 2018

The construction of South Korean High-Speed Rail (HSR) or Korea Train eXpress (KTX) has been evolving in phases since its first operation in 2004. This development raises concerns whether the benefits from the extended HSR network would again be limited to the initial HSR corridors and will deepen the inequalities in accessibility with the rising issue of uneven regional development of the country. This paper measures the accessibility of each stage of HSR network extension and evaluates its spatial distribution, variation, and changes using weighted averaged travel time and potential accessibility indicators. The results of this study find different accessibility impacts from each stage of HSR extension. Although travel-time reduction and increased attractions have been widened in more cities by each HSR extension, the spatial equity is degenerated by the extension in 2010/2011 as the improvement of accessibility has been concentrated in cities along the primary HSR corridor near the already-advantageous Seoul capital area. In contrast, the future HSR extension in 2018 will enhance equitable accessibility to the isolated regions such as the northeast and the southwest regions of the country. However, the relative degree of accessibility improvement will not be large enough for increasing the spatial equity of accessibility without more extended HSR networks between provinces.     

A multimodal approach to assessing accessibility of a high-speed railway station

In China, accessibility has been profoundly improved by the large-scale construction and operation of high-speed rail (HSR), with far-reaching implications for population flows and socioeconomic development. As a novel attempt to compare the shortest travel times, accessible regions, service populations, and population potential of one- to four-hour isochrones under four scenarios in Tanggu Railway Station (i.e., base scenario, hypothetical scenario 1, hypothetical scenario 2, and actual scenario), this paper analyses three factors' influences on and contributions to accessibility change: the advent of HSR, conventional railway route adjustment, and road network improvement. The results indicate that station accessibility significantly improved from 2007 to 2012. HSR has not only brought a time-space contraction effect to the region from the station to the north-western area but also strengthened interactions among different regions. Due to the reduction of some conventional railway routes, the shortest travel times from the station to the north-eastern areas have slightly increased. Although this factor has some negative effects, it has not affected the ascending trend of enhanced accessibility. Road network improvement is identified as a key factor with balanced impacts on all four-hour isochrones. The results of this study generate supportive information for the planning and construction of HSR stations and networks and provide references for comprehensive transport policymaking.     

Impacts on accessibility of China’s present and future HSR network

Although the construction of China’s high-speed rail (HSR) network only started in 2003, the network is already the largest in the world. This paper analyses the impact of the evolving HSR network on the accessibility by HSR and conventional ground transport of 333 prefecture-level cities and 4 municipalities. This paper employs three indicators of accessibility, and analyses three Scenarios. It shows that the HSR network will bring about substantial improvement in accessibility, and lead to national time–space convergence, but will also increase the inequality of nodal accessibility between eastern, central, and western regions, between cities with different sizes of population (excluding the case of the daily accessibility indicator) and between cities that differ in the shortest distance to HSR stations. The HSR network enlarges internal disparities in each of the regions and the five types of cities. The internal inequality of nodal accessibility in all three Scenarios generally increases from the eastern region via the central region to the western region, as well as from very large cities to small cities, varying inversely with the level of economic development and population size. Spatially, accessibility increases generally conform to the distance decay rule but with minor fluctuations. The 50 cities with the largest increases in accessibility are mostly located 50 km or less away from HSR stations and have populations of over 3 million, with the smaller ones located along HSR lines or around large cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. As time progresses, the planned HSR network will result in more balanced development, but regional disparities in accessibility will still be greater than before the construction of the HSR.     

Impacts of high-speed rail on domestic air transportation in China

This study investigates the impacts of high-speed rail (HSR) on domestic air transportation in China using a new comprehensive modeling framework utilizing both demand and supply perspectives. For the first time the assessment was conducted using an improved panel regression model by taking into account of the detailed opening schedules of various HSR services during the period 2001–2014. The research findings reveal that the deployed HSR services have a significant substitutional effect on domestic air transportation in China, but the effect varies across different HSR routes, travel distance and city type. Specifically, the research found a decrease in domestic passengers of 28.2%, in flights of 24.6% and in seat capacity of 27.9% after the introduction of HSR services. The impacts are found much stronger among those air routes that connect major hub within a distance range of 500 to 800 km. The uneven nature of the impact can be seen in the different experiences of selected cities. For example, air travel declined approximately 45% after commencement of the Wuhan-Guangzhou HSR, whereas it fell by 34% after the opening of the Beijing-Shanghai HSR.     

Impact of high-speed rail on regional economic disparity in China

This paper investigates a fundamental question related to the massive railway infrastructure development in China. What is the impact of high-speed rail (HSR) on regional economic disparity? The question is investigated from three perspectives. First, the influence of HSR on regional economic disparity is discussed theoretically from the perspective of New Economic Geography. Second, the variation in economic disparity at both the national and regional levels is investigated using three indexes: the weighted coefficient of variation, the Theil index and the Gini index. Third, the linkages between regional economic growth and HSR is measured empirically from a quantitative and qualitative perspective using an endogenous growth modelling framework with a panel data covering the period 2000–2014. The rail network density is adopted as a proxy to reflect the quantity change in rail investment. Three accessibility indicators (weighted average travel time, potential accessibility and daily accessibility) are introduced to capture the improvement of HSR transport quality. Our findings confirm that regional economic disparity has been decreased since the development of HSR. HSR has promoted regional economic convergence in China. Specifically, the positive effect of rail network density on regional economic growth is found to be significant in the East and North, whereas the positive effect of accessibility change is found to be more significant in the Middle Reaches of Yangtze River, the Southwest and the South China.     

Spatial and temporal heterogeneity of the impact of high-speed railway on urban economy: Empirical study of Chinese cities

The relationship between high-speed railway (HSR) construction and economic development has become a significant concern in recent decades. This study uses the spatiotemporal panel data of China's HSR construction and economic development from 2008 to 2018 as bases to discuss the spatial–temporal heterogeneity of the relationship between HSR and the urban economy. Firstly, this research measures the accessibility of different dimensions (i.e. location accessibility, potential accessibility and daily accessibility), and assesses the regional disparity of HSR accessibility and urban GDP using the Gini index. Secondly, the direct and indirect effects of HSR on economic development are analyzed from the global perspective by using the spatial Durbin model. Lastly, the geographically and temporally weighted regression model is applied to assess the spatial–temporal heterogeneity of the correlation between HSR and economic development from a local perspective. The conclusions are as follows. (1) The construction of HSR might reduce the regional disparity of daily accessibility, but expand the disparity of potential accessibility and location accessibility. (2) From a global perspective, HSR has a significant positive impact on urban economic development, but this impact was mainly produced by the spillover effect and not the direct effect. Specifically, the smaller the spatial–temporal distance between cities, the higher the level of regional integration and the better the economic development of cities. (3) The HSR impact on urban economic growth has a periodic feature. The stimulation of large-scale railway construction will expand the economic effect of HSR, although network improvement will gradually converge the corresponding impact. (4) From a local perspective, the HSR impact on economic development has significant spatial heterogeneity. Although HSR has a certain inhibitory effect on the economic development of Eastern China, it has a positive impact on the economic growth of the western region.     

High speed rail effects on tourism: Spanish empirical evidence derived from China's modelling experience

China and Spain are currently among the top tourist destinations, coming third and fourth place in the 2014 world ranking of tourist arrivals, behind France and the US. Tourism is crucial for the economies of Spain and China, and both countries have the longest high speed rail (HSR) networks in the world. What role has HSR infrastructure played in the development of tourism in both countries?Little research has been done to date, even in Europe, to estimate empirically how tourism indicators are affected by new HSR lines. In 2012 a multivariate panel analysis by Chen and Haynes was applied to 27 Chinese regions, and confirmed that emerging high speed rail services (during the period 1999–2010) had significant positive impacts on boosting tourism in China. No similar empirical tool has ever been tested in Europe.The aim of this paper is to analyse and validate this tool when applied to the Spanish context, and to develop a comparative analysis with the Chinese case study. The methodology is applied to 47 Spanish provinces during the period 1999–2015, and the results clearly reveal a positive but lower-value link (compared to China) between the increase in certain tourism outputs (foreign arrivals and revenues) and HSR network construction. However, further research is needed into the model's limitations, namely the availability of suitable tourism indicators in the official databases, the HSR explanatory variables considered, and the ability to detect “circular cause-effects” between HSR and tourism.     

Impacts of high-speed rail lines on the city network in China

China's large-scale HSR network has a significant influence on both accessibility and connectivity, but little attention has been paid to its impacts on connectivity. Changes in connectivity largely affect the external relations among cities, thus influencing the structure of the city network. This paper examines the impacts of China's HSR network on the overall connectivity and nodal centrality of the city network, as evaluated by passenger trains from 2003 to 2014. This paper employs the graph index, average path length, clustering coefficient and three indicators of centrality, namely weighted degree centrality (WDC), weighted closeness centrality (WCC) and weighted betweenness centrality (WBC). The results show that the HSR network largely increased overall connectivity according to the increasing Beta index and clustering coefficient, and decreasing average path length. The HSR lines also increased the average centrality of the city network and the inequality of nodal centrality according to the WCC indicator, but they decreased the inequality of nodal centrality with regard to the WDC and WBC indicators. Meanwhile, the growing HSR network led to the centrality tended to intensify in large cities in terms of the WCC indicator, but intensify in small cities according to the WDC and WBC indicators. Spatially, the cities with HSR stations, population over 3 million and GDP over 100 billion RMB saw higher increases in centrality than the others; the cities with high values of WDC and WCC, especially the top 20 cities, tended to concentrate in the populous areas with well-developed economies (e.g., Yangtze River Delta), whereas the cities with high WBC values in 2014 were coupled with the hub cities of regional railway management administration.     

Accessibility impact of the present and future high-speed rail network: A case study of Jiangsu Province,China

The large-scale implementation of a high-speed rail (HSR) network is often considered to have a significant effect on the spatial distribution of accessibility. In China, the development of HSR network has progressed rapidly since the first line commenced operation in 2008. As an important component of this network, Jiangsu province proposed an ambitious HSR construction program which planned to cover over 95% of its counties by 2030. Reduced travel time for passengers is one of the most important effects of HSR, and therefore this study aims to analyze the accessibility impact of the evolving HSR network in Jiangsu province from 2010–2030. A layered cost distance method, based on a door-to-door approach, is proposed to evaluate the present and future accessibility at a more detailed geographical level. The results demonstrate that, with the gradual development of the HSR network, accessibility levels across the province will be improved by about 9.6%, and the distribution of the gains will be uneven since the most significant improvements will occur in the more peripheral areas. The inequality in regional accessibility will decrease by an average of 25.7%, which will produce a more homogeneous accessibility landscape. In addition, several policy measures are suggested in order to further enhance the competitiveness of the HSR network in the transport market at a regional level. This extended period of exploratory and detailed analysis is expected to facilitate proactive public policy decisions related to improving the transport network.     

Railway trip speeds and areal coverage. The emperor’s new clothes of effectivity?

Europe’s railways have experienced a general decline in the second half of the 20th century and a renaissance since the 1980s. Total network length has decreased fundamentally while high-speed rail (HSR) line construction has soared since then. Accordingly HSR has stipulated a lot of research, but only recently HSR’s impacts on settlement structure and transport regimes have been studied in depth. We embrace a passenger’s point of view and utilize a generalized overview model for illustrating the trade-offs between trip speeds of complete trip chains, access/egress legs and mainline trip lengths. In order to estimate input parameters, an overview of railway network and settlement structure of Austria is empirically derived. In four scenarios, we vary these input parameters to study the impact of timetable integration, speed upgrades on mainlines and access/egress modes on trip speed in the Austrian case. Our results show that travel speed advantages of mainline speed increases are quickly countervailed by access/egress improvements or timetable integration improvements. We conclude that finding harmonized optimum speeds, introducing clock-face timetable design and improving access/egress modes are promising strategies in comparison to unscrutinized further maximization of mainline travel speed levels at the expense of feeder/distributor lines quality.     

Does high-speed rail accessibility influence residential property prices? Hedonic estimates from southern Taiwan

A new high-speed railway line (HSR) connects seven metropolitan areas in Taiwan. From Tainan, it is possible to reach Kaohsiung, Chiayi and Taichung in less than one hour, implying an enlarged spatial range of feasible commuting opportunities. The implicit price of HSR accessibility is estimated using hedonic price functions for the residential property market. The results of pre-specified and Box-Cox hedonic price functions are compared. The estimated functions show that HSR accessibility has at most a minor effect on house prices. High ticket prices and entrenched residential location patterns prevent otherwise feasible daily commuting opportunities between Tainan and other cities.     

Exploring the impact of high speed railways on the spatial redistribution of economic activities - Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration as a case study

The high speed railway (HSR) network in China has developed rapidly over the past ten years, offering a new means of travel and also regenerating and redistributing economic activities by encouraging population mobility. Using the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration as a case study, this paper investigates the redistribution of economic activities resulting from HSRs by developing a locally weighted regression model, geographically network weighted regression (GNWR). This GNWR is formulated in light of the current account identity in economics, and incorporates the changes in network-based travel time from HSRs and the degrees of cities, thereby offering a more appropriate method of capturing the movement of economic activities. Importantly, the coefficients in GNWR can reflect the net inflow or outflow of different cities in terms of their residents' investment and/or consumption. The results of the analysis show that HSRs have significantly changed the spatial redistribution of economic activities due to more frequent and rapid mobility. For investment activities, HSR drew the inflow to the second tier cities alongside HSR and strengthened the status of core cities; for consumption activities, HSR motivated the inflow to non-HSR cities located in the peripheral areas.     

Assessing High-Speed Rail’s impacts on land cover change in large urban areas based on spatial mixed logit methods: a case study of Madrid Atocha railway station from 1990 to 2006

This paper proposes an accessibility-based spatial mixed logit (SML) model with panel data structure to examine the impacts of High-Speed Rail (HSR) on land cover change in large urban areas. Using data between 1990 and 2006, impacts of the Spanish HSR on Madrid’s Atocha railway station influence area – a 20 km radius buffer centred on the station – were investigated. To model the HSR impacts, besides socioeconomic variables, the development of both local and regional transportation networks with corresponding accessibility improvement is also taken into account to segregate the impacts of land-cover change brought by different sources of accessibility measures. In this study, two SML models are used: one incorporates regional accessibility indicators as a base model, and the other does not, acting as a control model. The model estimation results reveal that the reduction of the local and regional weighted travel average time has positive impacts on the Atocha station catchment area’s urbanised land-cover rates. Although the base and control models both achieve high goodness-of-fit values, the base model that considers regional accessibility reveals a better goodness-of-fit statistic and is more robust than the control model. It is concluded that the improvement of regional accessibility due to the arrival of HSR at Atocha station plays an essential role in the urbanisation of land cover changes in the study area.     

Impact of high-speed rail on market concentration and Lerner index in China's airline market

China has become the second largest air transport market in the world since 2005. Its total length of high-speed rail (HSR) tracks in operation has been greater than that of all other countries combined since 2012. HSR poses a significant challenge to the Chinese airline industry, especially on major airline routes. The impacts of HSR on two market-competition measures, namely, the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index (HHI) and the Lerner index, are examined in this study. In general, the entry of HSR had the effect of reducing market power measured by both the unweighted and weighted Lerner indexes. However, the Lerner index and HHI of the routes with parallel HSR services remained consistently higher than those of the routes without parallel HSR services.     

Evaluating accessibility impacts of the proposed America 2050 high-speed rail corridor for the Appalachian Region

Transportation improvements are often considered to be precursors of economic growth. This paper examines industry-specific ‘attractiveness’ due to changes in the transportation network for 23 counties in the Appalachian Region. The network improvements result from new highway construction and the proposed America 2050 High-Speed Rail (HSR) plan for the Piedmont Atlantic Megaregion. The impacted counties that are proximate to five HSR stations (Birmingham, Atlanta, Greenville, Charlotte, and Greensboro) are studied for potential accessibility changes between the years 2002 to 2035. The impacts are examined with respect to six key industry sectors found around the proposed HSR stations: manufacturing; retail; construction; mining, quarrying, oil and gas extraction; health-care services; and all other remaining industries combined. The analysis shows that, for transportation improvements with highways only (and no HSR), a decrease in accessibility for all the impacted counties occurs for the six industry sectors examined in the future year of 2035. The HSR speed of 150 miles per hour is found to be adequate enough to cause positive changes in potential accessibility of the directly impacted counties containing the Birmingham and Greenville HSR stations. With combined transportation network improvements from both highway construction and the new 150 mph HSR line, counties around the Atlanta and Greensboro HSR stations would see accessibility increases in 2035 compared to 2002 with respect to five industry sectors: manufacturing; retail; construction; health-care services; and all other remaining industries combined. However, accessibility changes with respect to mining, quarrying, oil and gas extraction would be positive specifically only for the indirectly impacted counties around the Atlanta HSR station and the county containing the Greenville HSR station. This clearly shows differences in the spatial distribution of attractiveness for different industry sectors across the impacted counties along the HSR corridor. Thus, this exploratory analysis could serve as an aid to proactive public policy decision-making for large-scale transportation network improvements, such as the HSR, in understanding and improving economic activities for different industry mixes across other regions of the United States.     

The relationship between recent gasoline price fluctuations and transit ridership in major US cities

The unprecedented increase in gasoline costs between August 2005 and July 2008 has become a major public issue in the US. Of the contentions and potential solutions surrounding higher gasoline costs, one receiving relatively little attention has been the role of public transit. This research examines that question by analyzing the relationship between gasoline prices and transit ridership from January 2002 to April 2008 in nine major US cities. Regression analysis is used to assess the degree to which variability in rail and bus transit ridership is attributable to gasoline costs and fluctuations in gasoline cost, controlling for service changes, seasonality, and inherent trending. The results indicate that a small but statistically significant amount of ridership fluctuation is due to changes in gasoline prices. The results are discussed in light of the policy and practical implications of higher gasoline prices for mass transit and the potential for long term changes in US travel behavior.     

Market effects of regional high-speed trains on the Svealand line

When the Svealand line in Sweden opened in 1997, it replaced an older railway line between Eskilstuna and Stockholm (a distance of 115 km). Service on the Svealand line is operated with regional high-speed trains. In a case study of the effects of regional high-speed train services, changes in knowledge, valuations and travel behaviour have been analysed. The Svealand line has sparked an increase in regional rail travel of up to seven times compared to the old railway between Eskilstuna and Stockholm. Additionally, the market share has risen from 6% to 30%. Travelling times are valued highly and motorists, particularly, place great value on the high-speed train mode of transport.A general conclusion is that regional high-speed train services have had a major impact on the travel market and on travel behaviour. The improved accessibility to Stockholm, in particular, is especially noticeable among residents living close to the railway stations.     

客运专线中间站合理站间距的探讨

在对铁路客运专线通过能力进行计算分析的基础上,考虑开行不同速度目标值的A、B类列车条件下,按不同开行方案和站间距离,在给定B类列车开行数量的前提下,分别研究各种站间距离对应的A类列车最大可能开行对数,并检算B类列车的旅速。通过实例分析,说明客运专线的站间距离、开行方案、旅速和开行能力的配比关系。