Development Of High-speed Rail Research Articles

The formation mechanism of external effects of improving transport accessibility caused by high-speed rail devepolment

Background: One of the current trends of modern transport systems development process is innovative technologies application aimed to rational use of resources, which is confirmed by the development of high-speed rail supposing to reduce travel time costs. The world practice of high-speed railway projects implementation verifies variety of transport availability influences on social and economic sphere that allows to consider HSR not only as the transport innovation defining competitiveness of railway transport, but also as the economic stimulation tool for territory development.
 Aim: to substantiate the formation mechanism of external effects from high-speed rail transport projects implementation.
 Methods: the study was conducted by means of scientific methods such as the systematic method, comparative analysis, analogy, generalization and abstraction, synthesis, induction.
 Results: the formation mechanism of external effects from the transport accessibility improving caused by HSR projects implementation was specified, which allows considering HSR projects as a tool for economic development. The dual nature of the relationship between the high-speed rail efficiency, which ensure the external effects formation, and integration transport processes that affect transport accessibility was revealed.

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.

Impacts of high-speed rail on domestic air cargo traffic in China

Air cargo is vital to the modern supply chain because it provides efficient and timely delivery. In the past decade, the development of high-speed rail (HSR) in China has resulted in significant impacts on air cargo traffic, which has long been neglected by the existing studies. In this research, we quantify such impacts using HSR entry dummy variables and employ a panel regression approach to capture the impacts, specifically, the impacts on air cargo volumes and flight frequencies. We conduct a case study using quarterly air cargo traffic data in China, which contains 321 city pairs and spans between January 2011 and December 2017. We separately analyze the impacts on belly-hold cargo (carried by combi or passenger aircraft) traffic and freighter cargo (carried by freighters) traffic. We first capture the general impacts on belly-hold cargo traffic and freighter cargo traffic for all city pairs. Then, to quantify the distance level impacts on belly-hold cargo traffic, we categorize city pairs into multiple groups according to their distance and apply the panel regression approach in each group. Our main results include: (1) The entry of HSR services reduces the belly-hold cargo volumes and flight frequencies by 21.9% and 19.4%, respectively; (2) The strongest impacts on belly-hold cargo volumes and flight frequencies are observed in the medium-haul group within a distance of 800–1300 km; (3) After the entry of HSR services, the cargo volumes and flight frequencies of freighter cargo generally increase by 22.3% and 20.9%, respectively; (4) The whole air cargo traffic in the measurement of cargo volumes and flight frequencies decreases after the entry of HSR, and the impacts on whole air cargo volumes are relatively smaller than the belly-hold cargo volumes in the short-haul (no more than 800 km) and long-haul (more than 1300 km) groups.

The effects of high-speed rail development on regional equity in China

Abstract This paper investigates the impacts of high-speed rail (HSR) development on regional equity in China during 2007–2017. The equity in terms of economic output and HSR service is characterized at national, divisional (Eastern, Central, and Western), and provincial levels. The Gini indices associated with prefectures’ gross regional product (GRP) per capita, HSR connectivity and accessibility are measured to assess disparity from different aspects. Instead of measuring the effect of HSR entry by a dummy variable representing the presence of HSR service only, this paper estimates the effects of HSR by various terms regarding the HSR presence, network coverage, service quality, and equity of HSR development. In particular, the HSR network coverage is captured by the number of prefectures connected to HSR. Service quality is characterized by the HSR connectivity (frequency of HSR services) and accessibility (average travel time and economic potential). The frequency and accessibility related metrics are further decomposed into two sub-variables representing the intra- and inter-provincial metrics to differentiate the service availability and travel time between prefectures in a same or different province(s). The influence between neighboring or adjoining provinces on each other’s economic equity is identified by spatial autocorrelation effect. Our main findings include: 1) National equity is gradually improved in terms of both GRP and HSR developments in China between 2007 and 2017; the provinces or divisions with larger GRP tend to be less equitable; 2) The inauguration of HSR has positive correlation with provincial equity; however, the positive effect diminishes with the spread of HSR coverage; 3) HSR accessibility (average travel time and economic potential) has more significant effect on provincial economic equity than frequency; 4) Effects of intra-provincial accessibility and connectivity (HSR service within the province) dominate inter-provincial metrics (services to other provinces); 5) The prosperous and balanced HSR development in neighboring provinces helps promote provincial economic equity of one another.

Is high-speed rail a catalyst for the fourth industrial revolution in China? Story of enhanced technology spillovers from venture capital

As a critical infrastructure, the development of high-speed rail (HSR) inevitably exerts a marked impact on economic growth and sets the stage for different industrial revolutions. In this study, we set out an estimation framework designed to explore whether the spatial-temporal compression effect of HSR has paved the way for the Fourth Industrial Revolution characterized by urban technological innovation and whether HSR has strengthened the technology spillovers from venture capital (VC). The principal findings are as follows: First, the opening of HSR can strengthen urban technological performance, and compared with non-HSR cities, the number of patent applications is higher in HSR cities. Second, considering the heterogeneity of technological innovation, and the results show that the opening of HSR can significantly promote the breakthrough innovation and incremental innovation of cities, and has a more significant impact on the breakthrough innovation. Finally, VC has a highly significant and positive effect on urban technological performance. More notably, our findings suggest that the opening of HSR has a considerable shock effect on the technology spillovers from VC. This study has great practical significance for analyzing the impact of HSR on the transformation of the Fourth Industrial Revolution characterized by urban technological performance.

Spatial Equity and High Speed Trains: The Example of France

This paper is aiming at qualifying the high speed trains in operation in France, with regards to spatial equity. To that end we begin by examining some of the various concepts enclosed in this polysemic word. Increased accessibility was one objective of the development of high speed rail. Thus we estimate a simple model to measure the possible effect of high speed rail on French regions. We did find a positive effect on GDP per capita and demographic growth. In a sense this is because they are growth-promoting that High speed lines are unfair. Beyond that, the pricing system set up by the train operator is based on yield management and intermodal competition. This results in a peculiar and singularly unfair pricing structure.

Change in land use structure in urban China: Does the development of high-speed rail make a difference

China has launched an ambitious strategy to develop a national high-speed rail (HSR) system with a total distance of 38,000 km by 2025. The massive development of HSR has not only facilitated the improvement of interregional accessibility, it also substantially stimulated urbanization and urban expansions across various cities. This paper investigates fundamental questions pertaining to change in land use related to HSR in China. First, does the development of HSR play a role in promoting change in urban land use structure? Second, does land use structure change have a spatial dimension related to HSR development? For the first time, the spatial dimension of urban land use as it is related to HSR development is evaluated empirically using a spatial panel regression analysis. The assessment is based on a micro-level land use data covering 285 cities for the period 2007−2015. The research findings reveal that HSR plays a significant role in promoting urban land use structure change in China. The influence of HSR is much larger than that from other types of transportation infrastructure. In addition, impacts were found to vary across different size scales of cities. In particular, the impact of HSR on change in urban land use structure was found significant in Tier 2–3 cities. Conversely, the financial constraint of local government was also confirmed to have a significant influence on land use structure change in medium and small cities (Tier 3–5 cities). Overall, the study provides evidence and implications for policy makers to improve decision-makings on land use policy reforms and guidance for future infrastructure development.

High-speed rail development and urban environmental efficiency in China: A city-level examination

High-speed rail (HSR) is among the most efficient and environmentally friendly transportation methods available today. Following a phase of rapid HSR development, China has built 35,000 km of operational rail network—the largest in the world. It is important to evaluate the role HSR has played in promoting the sustainable development of Chinese cities. In this study, a heterogeneous stochastic frontier model with undesirable outputs was implemented to measure the environmental efficiency of 273 cities in China from 2005 to 2017. Results showed that the average environmental efficiency increased by 48.7% during this period although there was differentiation between cities. Next, we introduced a difference-in-differences model employing an instrumental variable strategy for further analysis. Results revealed that the implementation of HSR significantly improved the environmental efficiency of the investigated cities. Considering that ordinary-speed rail (OSR) accounts for 74.8% of the total railway network area in China, this study also examined the interactive effect of HSR and OSR. The findings suggested that the positive environmental effects of HSR were lower in cities with an existing OSR system. Therefore, we suggest that the Chinese government consider the presence of existing railway networks when planning new HSR routes to maximize the efficiency of both railway systems. Moreover, we found the treatment effect of HSR on environmental efficiency to vary according to region, economic development, and population size. Specifically, we determined that cities in western China, with lower economic development or smaller population sizes, benefit more from HSR. These findings may suggest that policymakers could utilize HSR as a tool to promote balanced economic development.

Impact of high-speed rail on urban economic efficiency in China

The development of high-speed rail (HSR) plays an essential role in regional economic growth. HSR service facilitates labor mobility and intercity resource allocation and promotes industrial agglomeration. This paper examines a fundamental question related to large-scale HSR development in China: what is the impact of HSR development on urban economic efficiency? This question is investigated from three perspectives. Firstly, the role of HSR on regional economic efficiency is discussed theoretically from the perspective of an agglomeration economy. Secondly, a multi-phase Difference-in-Difference (DID) method was adopted to investigate whether the opening of HSR contributed to variations in urban economic efficiency. Thirdly, a threshold model was adopted to empirically examine the relationship between HSR service frequency and urban economic efficiency. The results show that the opening of HSR has a significant positive impact on urban economic efficiency; the longer the service is in operation, the higher the positive impact is. In addition, the opening of HSR was found to have a significant threshold effect on efficiency improvements in the service sector. In particular, the positive impact of HSR service frequency on urban economic efficiency is found to be two times larger in cities where the population density exceeds 763 people/km2 than other HSR cities with a density that is below the level. Overall, this study provides important implications for HSR operation and policymaking related to infrastructure planning and investment, which may facilitate more efficient economic growth among various cities.

The methods and strategies of relay transfer channel on high-speed rail systems

With the rapid development of economy and high-speed rail in china. High-speed rail have been put on the agenda in many provinces. “fast, fast, fast” has become the current theme. Although the high-speed train is fast, the transfer time takes up a lot of time, which makes it “slow down”. There is an urgent need for a tool which enables high-speed trains to maintain high-speed travel and enables passengers to transfer, which can save passengers’ transfer time, avoid the stop at high-speed rail stations.

Empirical Analysis for Impact of High-Speed Rail Construction on Interregional Dependency

The opening of the high-speed rail (HSR) resulted in significant changes in the transportation network of Korea. The new HSR construction was expected to become a new engine of local economic growth. However, there was a controversy regarding whether the connection between regions intensifies the concentration of socio-economic activities in the metropolis (straw effect) or contributes to the balance of regional development (sprawl effect). More increasing attention had been devoted to studying the “straw effects” caused by the newly built HSR networks on interregional social-economic activities. Despite considerable research on the benefit achieved from HSR construction, little has focused on the negative externalities resulting from it. This paper examined the potential “straw effects” of two new HSR lines through constructing the indicator of interregional dependency that measured one city’s level of dependency on another one. In order to exclude the interference of lurking variables, five metropolitan cities were selected as case studies. The empirical results, based on a panel data model, revealed that the larger the economic scale of the target city, the lower the level of dependency on other cities, and there existed a “straw effect” on HSR development in terms of Seoul.

Dynamic network coupling between high-speed rail development and urban growth in emerging economies: Evidence from China

Developing new types of transportation is considered a key solution to meet the extreme demands placed on traditional transportation infrastructure due to the increasing flow of production factors for national urban growth, especially in emerging economies. Both city transportation networks and city economic networks reflect intercity relationships in urban systems from different aspects. Although HSR networks are being developed rapidly worldwide, we still lack a deep understanding on how HSR relates to the economic growth of urban agglomerations from a “double-network” perspective. In this research, we first built city HSR networks and city economic networks, respectively, before the QAP method was used to examine their relationship during 2010–2015. By analyzing comparatively the differences of the coupling relationship in various areas in China as a typical case, this study contributes to the understanding of the dynamic coupling relationship between new forms of transportation and regional economic development. We found a strong coupling relationship between HSR and economic growth, and HSR tends to play a more prominent role in promoting urban integration and development in areas with more developed economies (coefficients of more developed areas are all above 0.6, while that of less developed areas are below 0.4). Such correlated relationship is more obvious in smaller administrative scopes compared to cross-administrative regions. This study proposed a research framework for “double-network” analysis in exploring the relationship between the different networks. It could also provide policy implantation for balanced regional development in emerging economies.

Does China's high-speed rail development lead to regional disparities? A network perspective.

This research examines whether cities are getting more equally accessible and connected via high-speed rail (HSR) in China over the period from 2010 to 2015. Existing studies mainly use network centralities to describe the spatial pattern of HSR network without measuring the spatial disparity of these centralities, and most of them rely on the infrastructure network and thus fail to incorporate HSR service quality in the centrality measures. Using HSR timetable data, we incorporate both scheduled travel time and daily frequency of each origin-destination city pair into three centrality measures and further quantify their inequalities using Theil's T index. We find that as the HSR network expands, cities appear to be more equal in terms of accessibility, but their disparities in connectivity and transitivity depend on the dimensions of comparison. In general, although the difference between economic regions or between megalopolises has reduced, small/medium-sized cities not belonging to any major city cluster are further lagged behind in HSR development. The difference between core and non-core cities in the same megalopolises has decreased despite that non-core cities are increasingly relying on core cities to access other regions.

Wrestling between central and local: Planning and development of the Wuhan High-Speed Rail Station and its vicinity, China

This paper explores the complexity of multi-tier decision-making in the planning and development of High-Speed Rail (HSR) stations in China, where relationships between central and local governments have been reformed whilst the HSR system has been built at a fast pace. By analysing field interview data and secondary information, the research addresses a key question about whether multi-tier governments play a concerted role in station area planning and development decision-making. The findings reveal that the siting of the station, the planning of the station area, and the development of the different sectors of the HSR station and its vicinity are outcomes of the interplay between the central and the local governments, each of which has their distinctive logic in discharging responsibilities and pursuing interests associated with the projects. In the siting of the Wuhan HSR station, the municipal and central governments interacted actively with each other to safeguard their visions of development, whilst in the planning and development of the station vicinity, both the municipal and the central administrations were passive to collaboration thus foregone an opportunity to develop an integrated HSR station project.

High-speed rail network development effects on the growth and spatial dynamics of knowledge-intensive economy in major cities of China

The development of high-speed rail (HSR) is a key component of China's overall economic development policy. HSR generates external effects across economic sectors and has the potential to transform spatial-economies. Understanding these effects is, therefore crucial for long-term urban and regional development policy and planning. This paper examines the effect of HSR development on the growth and spatial dynamics of knowledge-intensive economy (KE) in major cities of China. The analysis does not only adopt the widely used proxy of total length of HRS network, but it also includes the frequency of HSR services and its interactions with network length. HSR effects on: (a) absolute KE employment growth (b) KE spatial concentration and (c) KE regional specialisation are examined, controlling for relevant socio-economic variables. The results show that HSR network development and service frequency had varying effects on KE growth and spatial dynamics at multiple spatial scales. At the national level, HSR service frequency positively affected KE employment growth, concertation and specialisation, while HSR network expansion had a small but negative association with KE regional specialisation. Among the three main regions of China, positive effects of HSR service frequency were evident in the more prosperous eastern region. In contrast, effects were negligible in the less-developed central region. The results show that HSR development combines with existing favourable regional economic conditions to generate more growth in historically prosperous regions, thereby entrenching existing economic development imbalances. These insights could inform long-term strategic regional development policy to reduce uneven development outcomes in China.

Are conventional train passengers underserved after entry of high-speed rail?-Evidence from Chinese intercity markets

Despite rich literature on high-speed rail (HSR) and air transport interactions, the HSR's impact on the conventional (low-speed) rail service surprisingly has yet well studied. This paper fills in this research gap by providing empirical evidence in the Chinese intercity travel markets, where large-scale HSR expansion has been conducted since 2008. A nested logit utility model is developed to model passengers' travel mode choice between HSR and conventional train. A difference-in-differences (DID) method is then applied to measure HSR's impact on conventional train service frequency, price, and travel time. This paper then calculates and compares the welfare changes before and after the HSR entry for both the conventional and non-conventional rail passengers. It is found that entry of HSR has significantly reduced frequency of conventional train service, but not its travel time and ticket price. Such an adverse effect is more prominent on the shorter haul routes, probably as a result of the government's intervention to divert rail passengers to emerging HSR service. The calculated welfare loss to the conventional train passengers based on its current market size is approximately 3.41 billion RMB (487 million USD) as of 2017, a figure we consider on the side of conservative estimates. This loss accounts for 8% of the welfare gain brought by HSR to those non-conventional rail passengers. A special caution is, therefore, warranted when evaluating the benefit of the HSR development, as the welfare damage to the conventional train service and its passengers cannot be neglected.

On the modal shift from motorway to high-speed rail: evidence from Italy

Abstract The development of high-speed rail (HSR) has had a notable impact on modal market shares on the routes on which its services have been implemented. The aim of this study is to analyse whether the HSR expansion in Italy has led to a modal shift from motorway to HSR. We empirically test i) whether HSR openings adjacent to motorway sectors have reduced the total km travelled by light vehicles on these sectors during the period 2001–2017; and ii) whether this reduction has been persistent or even more evident after the opening of on-track competition between two HSR operators. To do so, we carried out a generalized difference-in-differences estimation, using a unique panel dataset that exploits the heterogeneous traffic data within all tolled motorway sectors in a quasi-experimental setting. Our findings reveal that neither HSR openings nor the opening of on-track competition led to a modal shift from motorway to HSR services, as the two transport modes are non-competing. Conversely, HSR expansion had a slightly positive impact on motorway traffic. The extent to which HSR demand could be the result of a modal shift from motorways is a relevant issue in any cost-benefit analysis of HSR investments.

Is the High-Speed Rail Opening Environmentally Friendly? Taking the Difference-in-Differences Test in Jiangsu, China

In view of rapid development of high-speed rail, the relationship between high-speed rail and air pollution needs to be tested and determined. Most research studies focused on the impact of high-speed rail on environmental pollution and just viewed high-speed rail as a control variable, which lacked a direct study on this relationship. Also, these rarely involved regional research, which is short of pertinence and insufficient understanding of regional issues. Therefore, based on the difference-in-differences (DID) model which is a natural experiment evaluation method, this study examined the impact of high-speed rail opening on air pollution by using the panel data of Jiangsu province, China, from the year of 2000 to 2017. The empirical results showed that the opening of Jiangsu high-speed rail, which increases cities’ good day significantly by 21.5%, has inhibitory effect on air pollution. Among control variables, there is no inverted “U” relationship between the economic development level and air pollution. Personal income and urbanization significantly improve air pollution, whereas foreign direct investment exacerbates it. And the results are still valid after robustness tests, including trend test and counterfactual test. Moreover, this study explores the relationship between the degree of reducing pollution caused by high-speed rail and the location of cities, which found that the opening of high-speed rail can greatly improve air pollution of areas in central city circle. Finally, it is found that when high-speed rail and other possible pollution items coexist, the improved effect of high-speed rail on air pollution is still obvious. Therefore, in order to exert the mitigating effect of high-speed rail on air pollution, it is necessary to rationally plan high-speed railway lines and develop the high-speed railways in cities closer to Shanghai.

The Impacts of High-speed Rail on Sustainable Economic Development: Evidence from the Central Part of China

To give full play to the role of high-speed rail (HSR) in promoting sustainable economic development, the models that can calculate and describe the impacts of HSR on the sustainable economy are required. However, little attention has been paid so far to building such models. To address this, the paper puts forward the definition of sustainable economic development, especially that of China. Based on the definition, the paper proposes the indicators of sustainable economic development for China from industry and labor force perspectives. Compared with the previous literature, these indicators take into account the behavior of enterprises and labor forces as individuals rather than as groups, which is more explanatory. HSR, as the main factor to improve the level of transportation technology and accessibility, is incorporated into the analytical framework. Then, we build decision-making behavior models of single enterprise and labor force under market equilibrium to get the relationship between HSR and indicators. Compared with the previous literature, the methods within the paper not only fully consider the interests of enterprises and labor forces, but also considers the interaction between industries and the trade of commodities in different cities/regions. The evidence from the central part of China shows that the model can effectively reveal the relationship between HSR and indicators. The paper gives new perspectives to study the relationship between HSR and sustainable economic development. Based on the findings herein, we offer recommendations for how HSR can promote sustainable economic development effectively.

Roles of accessibility, connectivity and spatial interdependence in realizing the economic impact of high-speed rail: Evidence from China

The rapid development of high-speed rail (HSR) in China has raised questions about its implications for regional economic growth. Most existing studies take an aggregate approach to quantify the economic impacts of HSR entrance primarily by inspecting the effect of the dummy variable which reflects the existence of HSR service. This paper takes one step further to investigate how network effects play a role in realizing these impacts. In particular, the effects of location endowment characteristics (evaluated by accessibility and connectivity) enabled by HSR development and the spatial interdependent effects (reflected by neighbors’ impacts) are examined. Based on the panel data from China during 2007–2015, we find that when these new factors are taken into account, the effect of the HSR dummy variable (reflecting the existence of HSR service) on regional economic growth is insignificant. On the contrary, the effects of both location endowment measurements, accessibility and connectivity in the railway network, and neighboring effects are significant. These important observations imply that: (1) The economic impact of HSR is largely accomplished by improving accessibility and connectivity in the railway network rather than an isolated presence of HSR infrastructure; (2) The accessibility and connectivity of neighboring cities impact the economic growth of one another; (3) HSR development has generated uneven economic growth concerning the cities in different geographic regions and with different population scales; (4) There is a mismatch between where the accessibility improves the most and where unit improvement generates the largest economic growth; (5) Accessibility and connectivity improvement by railway resulted in a smaller increase in economic growth than that of highway, but larger than those by air and water. These implications shed light on policies regarding multi-modal transport system planning, transport infrastructure investment, and HSR development and operations.