High-speed Rail Construction Research Articles

Impact and mechanisms of high-speed rail construction on carbon emissions: A quasi-natural experiment in China

Carbon emissions present a significant climate challenge for China. As a major source of these emissions, reducing transportation-related carbon output is essential to achieving the country's dual carbon goals. In this context, high-speed rail (HSR) emerges as a green, low-carbon alternative with an increasingly significant role in reducing carbon emissions. This paper explores the impact of HSR station construction on carbon emissions using data from 248 prefecture-level cities from 2003 to 2019, treating the construction as a quasi-natural experiment. Employing a spatial DID model, the research investigates how HSR construction affects carbon emission intensity within the region and in neighboring areas. It also considers socioeconomic factors to understand their mediating roles. The findings reveal that HSR construction significantly reduces regional carbon emissions over time, with long-term and gradually increasing effects. Spatially, HSR also has substantial spillover effects in reducing carbon emissions in adjacent regions. Numerically, HSR reduces carbon emissions by an average of 1.7% in the local region and 2.3% in the surrounding areas. The mechanism analysis indicates that the carbon reduction benefits of HSR stem from a complex interplay of multiple factors, with each selected factor playing a partial mediating role. Notably, the concentration of human capital and the flow of innovation are crucial pathways for regional carbon reduction. However, despite HSR's promotion of industrial structure upgrades and substitution of traditional transportation, these factors have not yet significantly contributed to carbon reduction under current conditions. These results underscore the critical position of HSR in carbon reduction and provide a theoretical foundation for future HSR planning and sustainable development policy formulation.

Does high-speed rail construction reduce air pollution? Evidence from prefecture-level cities in China

Based on data from 282 cities in China, this study assesses the impact of high-speed rail (HSR) construction on air pollution with a difference-in-difference (DID) method and a quasi-natural experiment of HSR construction. The results indicate HSR construction reduces air pollution, specifically, PM2.5 concentrations in HSR cities decreased by 2.91 %. Moreover, heterogeneity exists in the influence of HSR on air pollution of different types of cities. Considering cities of different administration levels, HSR construction significantly reduces air pollution in peripheral cities, while the pollution reduction in core cities is not obvious. Considering cities with different population sizes, the HSR construction suppresses air pollution in small cities and big cities, while this suppressive effect in small cities is more obvious. The mechanism analysis confirms HSR construction reduces PM2.5 by three ways: substituting civil aviation, adjusting industrial structure, and enhancing innovation foundation. Meanwhile, a spatial spillover effect exists in HSR's effect on air pollution: HSR construction reduces air pollution in local cities, while also promoting air quality in neighboring cities due to the spatial correlation between cities.

Promotion Effects of High-Speed Rail on Urban Development: Evidence from Three Lines in China

Amid the vigorous development of the high-speed rail (HSR) network, local governments in China generally consider the construction of HSR as a crucial task in their regional development strategies. Currently, most provincial capitals and prefecture-level cities in the eastern and central regions of China already have operational HSR services. This study aims to examine a key question: has the objective of local governments to promote urban development through the construction of HSR been effective? The research selects cities along the Beijing–Shanghai, Beijing–Guangzhou, and Harbin–Dalian HSR lines as the study subjects. Based on the principles of proximity and similarity, cities with operational HSR and those without are chosen as the experimental group and the control group, respectively. Following the double difference (difference-in-differences) approach, an advantage index is proposed to systematically evaluate the impact of HSR operation on urban development from three dimensions: population aggregation, economic development, and expansion of construction land. Furthermore, the evaluation results are systematically clustered to identify city types that exhibit different promotional effects in various dimensions. The research findings indicate the following: (1) The promotion effect of HSR on the development of small to medium-sized cities is more reflected in economic growth and construction land growth. (2) The promotion effect of HSR on the development of large cities is more reflected in the growth of the employment population. (3) For smaller or economically less-developed cities, HSR may be detrimental to the aggregation of resident and employment populations. (4) Cities with moderate size and good economic development have the opportunity to use HSR to promote population aggregation. On this basis, combined with the findings above, strategies to promote the coordinated development of high-speed rail construction and urban systems are discussed.

The Impact of High-Speed Rail Construction on China’s Provincial Industrial Structure

The Impact of High-Speed Rail Construction on China’s Provincial Industrial Structure

Does high-speed rail boost local bank performance? Evidence from China

This paper investigates whether and how high-speed rail (HSR) construction affects local bank performance. Using the difference-in-differences method, we find that the city commercial banks (CCBs) significantly experience an overall decrease in ROA after HSR is introduced in their headquarters cities. Mechanism analyses suggests that the HSR-driven city connectivity imposes the local CCBs on the intensified banking competition related to freer capital flows, and improves bank governance associated with information flows. HSR exerts more pronounced impacts under higher financial liberalization. The findings are robust to the endogeneity concerns. We highlight the indispensable role of transport infrastructure in banking development.

Interaction mechanisms of interface management risks in complex systems of high-speed rail construction projects: an association rule mining-based modeling framework

PurposeThis study aims to develop an interface management risk interaction modeling and analysis methodology applicable to complex systems in high-speed rail construction projects, reveal the interaction mechanism of interface management risk and provide theoretical support for project managers to develop appropriate interface management risk response strategies.Design/methodology/approachThis paper introduces the association rule mining technique to improve the complex network modeling method. Taking China as an example, based on the stakeholder perspective, the risk factors and significant accident types of interface management of high-speed rail construction projects are systematically identified, and a database is established. Then, the Apriori algorithm is used to mine and analyze the strong association rules among the factors in the database, construct the complex network, and analyze its topological characteristics to reveal the interaction mechanism of the interface management risk of high-speed rail construction projects.FindingsThe results show that the network is both scale-free and small-world, implying that construction accidents are not random events but rather the result of strong interactions between numerous interface management risks. Contractors, technical interfaces, mechanical equipment, and environmental factors are the primary direct causal factors of accidents, while owners and designers are essential indirect causal factors. The global importance of stakeholders such as owners, designers, and supervisors rises significantly after considering the indirect correlations between factors. This theoretically explains the need to consider the interactions between interface management risks.Originality/valueThe interaction mechanism between interface management risks is unclear, which is an essential factor influencing the decision of risk response measures. This study proposes a new methodology for analyzing interface management risk response strategies that incorporate quantitative analysis methods and considers the interaction of interface management risks.

High-speed rail operations, the cross-regional mobility of highly skilled talent, and regional innovation—evidence from the Yangtze River delta in China

ABSTRACT The correlation between high-speed rail (HSR) and regional innovation is vital for studying the economic impacts of HSR. Using 2003–2018 panel data on prefecture-level cities in China’s Yangtze River Delta (YRD), this paper investigates the impact of HSR on regional innovation using a multiperiod difference-in-differences (DID) model. HSR operations have a significant positive impact on urban innovation, as supported by robustness tests. Heterogeneity analysis reveals a threshold effect of cognitive capital on the promoting effect of HSR on regional innovation that is maximized when cognitive capital capacity falls within the range of 0.1254 to 0.1876. Mechanism analysis suggests that HSR construction facilitates the cross-regional mobility of highly skilled individuals. This expanded movement increases innovation within cities due to the resulting knowledge spillovers. Moreover, HSR operations and civil aviation, as well as internet communication tools, play a significant complementary role in promoting regional innovation. This study deepens the understanding of the impact of HSR operations on regional innovation from the perspective of the interregional mobility of highly skilled people. Furthermore, ArcGIS is used to construct the ‘least cost path’ of the HSR network, providing a new approach to addressing the endogeneity of HSR station locations.

The distributional impacts of high speed rail: Evidence from China

This paper develops a spatial general equilibrium framework to study the distributional impacts of high-speed rail (HSR) construction. HSR does not directly lower the trade costs but lowers the travel costs among cities. This encourages firms to gain larger market share in the destination city, and export to more distant markets. We estimate the matrix of travel costs among 279 prefectural-level Chinese cities by taking into account the real world geography. The model is calibrated to the Chinese economy to match stylized facts since 2005. We show that the improvements of passenger networks lead to higher inter-regional trade and increase the total real income by 3:07 percent. The cities unconnected to HSR are also found to enjoy income gain from the HSR construction. HSR construction directs more people to work in the inland region. Both labor mobility and international trade serve to amplify the income growth from HSR construction.

Economic Principle Analysis of High-speed Railway Station Setting

China’s construction of high-speed rail has accomplished outstanding achievements that have drawn attention from around the world and have played a significant role in driving economic and social development. To investigate the reasons behind the competition between neighboring cities in the region during the process of setting up a high-speed railroad station, the economic principles of high-speed railway construction and operation station setup and its role effect are analyzed using the theories of investment multiplier, spatial spillover, and pole-axis. This is intended to solve the mystery surrounding the competition for the station between neighboring regions and offer theoretical support for the science of high-speed railway station setup. The result of the study demonstrates that the construction and operation of high-speed railway has significant spatial spillover effects that effectively enhance local employment levels and promote the coordinated development of the regional economy along the routes, in addition to having multiplier effects on national income that cause the regional economy to grow exponentially.

Challenge and Prospect of High-speed Rail Radar Communication Integration Technologies

Radar plays an important role in urban public transit system, so it is of great significance to ensure the safe operation of High-speed rail. Radar communication integration technology has the characteristics of high efficiency and low energy consumption, it can improve communication quality, speed up transmission efficiency and improve detection accuracy. Firstly, this paper introduces the running scene of High-speed rail, and puts forward that radar communication integration technology has a broad application space in High-speed rail. Then it introduces radar communication integration technology, and the research status, advantages and development prospects of radar communication integration technology based on linear frequency modulation（LFM）. Finally, it is proposed that obstacle detection technology is one of the difficulties to ensure the safe operation of High-speed rail. Radar integration technology can be effectively applied to train obstacle detection, which is an important technical support for improving service quality and speeding up the intelligent construction of High-speed rail in the future.

Innovative technologies in the development of high-speed ground transport

Aim: is a comparative analysis of the technical and economic characteristics of various types of land rail transport.
 Methods: comparative analysis, structuring of high-speed traffic processes, logical analysis of the cause-and-effect organization of the high-speed highways, made it possible to formalize the technical advantages of maglev transport technology in comparison with the construction of high-speed highways.
 Results: A key trend has been identified to increase traffic speeds, requiring the convergence of various transport systems. The main criteria for innovative high-speed ground transport systems are classified. It is substantiated that increasing the level of technical characteristics of innovative technologies in the development of high-speed ground transport will allow maglev transport to become a key link in multimodal transport corridors. A comparison of the technical and economic characteristics of various types of land railway transport confirms that the introduction of MLTT into the transport complex will be able to significantly influence the matrix of the transport industry and accumulate both the passenger flow of air and rail traffic, as well as part of the containerized cargo, and become a key link in the multimodal transport corridors of the Russian Federation.
 Conclusion: The conclusions are based on a representative sample of data on the innovative, technological and economic parameters of two high-speed rail construction technologies: wheel-rail and magnetic levitation.

The impact of high-speed rail construction on the development of resource-based cities: A temporal and spatial perspective

As a province abundant in mineral resources, Henan Province has formed extensive mining subsidence areas during its past economic development, posing a major challenge to the planning and advancement of the high-speed rail (HSR) network. This study investigates the impact of high-speed rail (HSR) construction on the development of resource-based cities (RBC), considering both temporal and spatial dimensions. By utilizing GIS technology, a spatial clustering index was created to assess the spatial influence of HSR on the economic development of RBC. Empirical analysis was conducted using the spatial Durbin model. The findings reveal that both mining subsidence areas and HSR station factors significantly affect the clustering patterns observed in the collected samples. Notably, a regression phenomenon in the classification results emerged after 2017. Specifically, the extensive mining areas in RBC pose significant obstacles to the opening time and routes of HSR, thereby impacting the overall level of urban development. Additionally, in regions with underdeveloped secondary transportation networks, the current development mode of HSR remains primarily focused on "point-to-point" connections.

The unintended economic impact of high-speed rail on China's non-core cities: A spatial-difference-in-differences analysis

China's large-scale high-speed rail (HSR) construction has raised heated debates worldwide. Differing from previous research on metropolitan areas, this study examines on the economic impacts on periphery cities connected by HSR lines. Using a unique panel dataset of 237 Chinese non-core cities at the prefecture level spanning from 2002 to 2016, this study adopts a spatial difference-in-differences model to investigate the impact of HSR on service industry output. The estimation results suggest that the operation of HSR has a significant negative impact on service industry output of non-core cities, confirming the existence of a siphoning effect of HSR. Such negative impact varies with the profile of the non-core cities. HSR-connected non-core cities in the relatively well-developed coastal region, medium-sized and located within half-an-hour's travel time to mega cities tended to be associated with the most pronounced reductions. These findings provide important implications to the Chinese government and could be cogent for those planning or constructing HSR lines in other countries, given the numerous ongoing HSR initiatives around the globe.

Dams, cropland productivity, and economic development in China

We use satellite, hydrology, and census data from 1992 to 2014 to quantify dams' impacts on cropland productivity and economic development in China. We exploit a county's river gradient and elevation to address the endogeneity of dam placement. We find that an additional dam reduces a local county's cropland net primary production (NPP) and nighttime light (NTL)-based GDP by 13.7% and 2.9%, respectively. We also find that an additional dam increases a downstream county's NPP by 0.5% and has a positive yet insignificant impact on a downstream county's NTL-based GDP. Dynamic analysis shows that the positive impact of dams on downstream counties' cropland productivity and economic development takes around ten years to realize. We also find that dams have smaller positive impacts on agricultural productivity and economic growth than China's high-speed rail (HRS) construction.

High-speed rail construction and urban innovation disparity in China: the role of internet development

High-speed rail construction and urban innovation disparity in China: the role of internet development

The impact of the opening of high-speed rail on the joint innovation of enterprises - Evidence from listed companies

As a link for exchanges between cities, high-speed rail accelerates the flow of factors between different regions, obviously promotes joint innovation of enterprises. This paper uses the data of high-speed rail opening in various regions and the number of patents applied by listed companies from 2015 to 2019 to examine the impact of high-speed rail opening on the degree of joint innovation of enterprises through the least squares model (OLS), and it is found that the opening of high-speed rail has a significant role in promoting joint innovation of enterprises. At the same time, the mechanism analysis shows that the opening of high-speed rail mainly promotes the flow of highly educated talents and promotes joint innovation of enterprises. The heterogeneity test found that for different regions, different urban agglomerations, and enterprises with different innovation intensity, the impact of the opening of high-speed rail on joint innovation was different. This paper studies the relationship between specific forms of innovation and the opening of high-speed rail, pointing out that highly educated talents are an important production factor for joint innovation of enterprises, indicating that the rapid construction of high-speed rail has a significant role in promoting joint innovation of enterprises, and the promotion of high-speed rail for joint innovation is conducive to realizing the development strategy of ranking among the forefront of innovative countries in the 14th Five-Year Plan, and improving the efficiency of innovation and reform . Injected strong strength into the overall economic development.

Does geographic proximity affect firms’ cross-regional development? Evidence from high-speed rail construction in China

Firms' cross-regional development is essential for their growth, with communication costs arising from geographic distance becoming a widely discussed factor. However, the causal relationship between geographic proximity and firms' cross-regional development remains inadequately underexplored. By leveraging firm registration data from 2003 to 2014, and exploiting the staggered construction of China's high-speed rail (HSR) as a quasi-natural experiment, this paper studies the effects of falling communication costs on firms' cross-regional development. HSR construction leads to an 8.6% increase in the number of firms' affiliates and a 68.6% rise in the weighted average distance between new affiliates and their headquarters. The effects are more pronounced for firms with higher performance heterogeneity and in cities with limited Internet infrastructure, suggesting that HSR construction can mitigate information asymmetry and improve monitoring. This study provides new micro-evidence for how geographic proximity promotes firms' cross-regional expansion through communication cost channels, offering implications for multiregional firms and policymakers.

Transport Infrastructure, Intra-Regional Inequality and Urban-Rural Divide: Evidence From China’s High-Speed Rail Construction

While the impact of transport infrastructure on regional disparity has been widely examined, its effect on intra-regional inequality has received less attention. Based on panel data at China’s prefecture-city level during 2007–2018, we adopt the Difference-in-Differences model to investigate whether high-speed rail affects one type of intra-regional inequality, the urban-rural income gap. The results show that high-speed rail operation has widened the urban-rural income gap by boosting the agglomeration of population, financial capital, and economic activities in urban areas adjacent to high-speed rail stations. Furthermore, the effect varies across cities. The impact of high-speed rail on the urban-rural income gap is more evident in small and less developed cities due to the polarization effect. In contrast, this is not observed in large and developed cities. One possible reason is that, in the latter, the diffusion effect is much stronger.

Impact of Increasing Intercity Connectivity on Local Housing Markets: Study of China’s Yangtze River Delta Region

The continuous improvement of urban accessibility has had an increasingly prominent impact on the housing market, especially on urban housing prices. In this process, high speed rail (HSR) can play a key role. Based on urban panel data relating to the Yangtze River Delta in China (2010–2018), this paper discusses the direct impact and spatial spillover effect of HSR on urban housing prices, using a spatial econometric model. The results show that improvements in the HSR services not only significantly increased urban housing prices but also had a positive spatial spillover effect. Morover, due to the space–time compression consequence of HSR, the extant “ripple effect” of housing prices has been further strengthened, and improvements in the service frequency of HSR has brought about a stronger spatial spillover effect on housing prices. This study fills a gap in previous spatial perspective research on the impact of HSR on urban housing prices and offers significant theoretical explanations and empirical evidence. Our research provides valuable inputs for the planning and implementing of stratgies aiming to promote urban development and create economic growth through HSR construction.

Impacts of high-speed rail on the industrial developments of non-central cities in China

The high-speed rail (HSR) is one of the most important, if not the most important, emerging transportation that could exert significant influences in many areas, including economic development, social development, financial development, environmental protection, etc. This paper focuses on examining the impacts of HSR on the development of the industrial structure. Since most of the studies in this area are related to central cities (provincial capitals and municipalities directly under the central government), to fill in the gap in the literature, in this paper, we investigate the impacts of HSR on non-central cities in China. To do so, we use the propensity score matching difference-in-difference (PSM-DID) method to investigate the siphoning, spillover, and moderating effects of the opening of the HSR on the development of the industrial structure in the cities along with or nearby the HSR. In addition, we conclude both the robustness tests and the heterogeneity analysis in our study. We find that the opening of HSR significantly promotes the rationalization of non-central cities’ industrial structure, as well as improves the advancement of the industrial structure for non-central cities which are less than 100 km away from the central city. Moreover, the four moderating variables, the urban innovation index, the new urbanization construction level, the nearest distance from the central city, and the medical services insurance coverage rate, make the HSR has a positive impact on the rationalization level of industrial structure. Our findings are useful for both central and local governments and policymakers in accurately formulating policies related to the planning and construction of HSR, city planning, and planning the development of the industrial structure for each city nearby the HSR.