Chapter 15 - Government initiatives on transport and regional systems: The development and management of Chinese high-speed rail

Abstract

There have been considerable efforts made by the governments of many countries and regions to engage remote or peripheral regions within national or continental networks. Indeed, governments often play hugely significant, and sometimes decisive, roles in the evolution and development of transport and regional systems. However, hitherto, the impacts of such initiatives on transport and regional systems are underresearched. Understanding such deficiency, this chapter conducts an in-depth case study of the development and management of high-speed rail (HSR) in China. We first review the Chinese HSR network development, where we analyze the impacts of government initiatives on transport infrastructure and regional accessibility. We found that the Chinese government has been actively involved in the HSR project, providing substantial financial support, which serves as a core reason why its HSR network has achieved astounding success within a short period of time. Next, we further investigate the Chinese HSR by projecting its future development. We discuss its potential impacts on spatial distribution of employment and population, the intermodal network, HSR freight, and long-distance international HSR services. At the national level, we argue that government initiatives may pose positive impacts on transport and regional systems. However, at the international level, such impacts may be more limited. We believe that this study will enhance our understanding of the impacts of HSR on transport and regional systems.