China Railway Research Articles

Can China railway express improve environmental efficiency? Evidence from China's cities

China Railway Express (CRE) has changed the cargo transportation between China and Europe, as well as the environmental efficiency of relevant cities. This paper uses panel data for China's 256 cities from 2005 to 2018 and multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) method to study the impact and influence mechanism of CRE on environmental efficiency. The results found that the implementation of CRE has significantly improved environmental efficiency. The opening of CRE has improved environmental performance by promoting technological innovation and reducing the introduction of polluting foreign investment. The paper further examines and verifies that there are effects on resource crowding out and knowledge spillover between cities. The opening of CRE has a much greater impact on knowledge spillover. This study provides useful policy insights for improving environmental efficiency.

Integrated pricing mechanism of China Railway Express whole-process logistics based on the Stackelberg game

China-Railway Express(CRE), an important product to promote the “Belt and Road”, has a far-reaching significance for the economic and trade cooperation of countries along the route. However, in the early stage, it relies on subsidies to attract supplies, resulting in higher freight rates in some sections. Also, there are many transportation participants and complex transaction entities, resulting in an improved trade cost. These issues have affected the strategic CRE pricing decisions. Integrated decision-making is important to reduce transaction costs, and improve decision-making efficiency. This thesis adopts game theory to research the whole-process integrated pricing mechanism of CRE with multi-agent interaction. Considering transaction costs and pricing dominance, a distributed, horizontal, and vertical integration Stackelberg pricing game model for CRE is established and it compares the Nash equilibrium solutions of 9 pricing models. By discussing the form of the equilibrium solution, it is concluded that the larger the number of participants in the alliance and the longer the coverage mileage, the higher profit the alliance will be obtained. At the same time, numerical experiments and sensitivity analysis of key parameters are carried out by taking the China Railway Express (CY) as an example. Results show that the gross profit of CRE is the lowest under the decentralized decision-making mode, and it is the highest under the vertical integration alliance decision-making mode. If the price cap is abolished, carriers with shorter segment mileage will raise prices, leading to higher costs for CRE, while forcing carriers with longer segment mileage to cut down prices, so overall profits will suffer. This research promotes establishing a more reasonable pricing mechanism for CRE and achieving global Pareto optimality. It helps CRE get rid of subsidy dependence and achieve sustainable development.

High speed railway operations expert training development in Indonesia

KCIC Phase I Training Program will accommodate 500 Participants from the total HR needs of PT KCIC from 1,452 people. The focus is on increasing competence on the Operation System, Passenger Service, and Maintenance divided into 21 Training Posts, most of the participants came from Fresh Graduates who entered the Entry Level. Required Competence Levels ability to apply knowledge and skill High Speed Railway Technology. technical executive level for High Speed Railway operation and maintenance for Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) KCIC400AF Type from China. Gaps participant competence between existing competence levels and required competence levels calculate 100%, thus the training program will be carried out as a whole in accordance with the training curriculum of the HSRCC. The training program consists of 4 parts consisting of (1) Indonesian regulation, instructors from Indonesian Railway Polytechnic; (2) Professional Knowledge, instructor from Tianjin Railway Technical and Vocational College and Southwest Jiaotong University; (3) Safety regulation, instructor from China Railway – Beijing; and (4) Practical skills instructor from China Railway – Beijing. The delivery method uses the online class method which will be accompanied by interpreters and assistant lecturers in each class. With the language interpretation stage, a multiplier coefficient of 2.5 is obtained from normal lesson hours in the HSRCC curriculum if it is implemented in Indonesian participants. The duration of the training implementation about 1 – 8.5 Month. The next competency requirement is High Speed Railway trainer from Indonesia. With the stipulation, which was conveyed by the HSRCC, that participants who have taken the training phase I and received an evaluation score of training and competency certification above the average of other participants, are able to take part in the Training of Trainers for High Speed Railway and pass the Competency Test of Trainer Candidates.

“I’m energized to” & “I’m able to”: A dual-path model of the influence of workplace spirituality on high-speed railway drivers’ safety performance

Workplace safety has always been at the core of the sustainable development of high-speed railways in China, where drivers are a significant factor in railway systems in terms of ensuring safe operation. As a spiritual resource perceived by individuals in the workplace, workplace spirituality can improve the safety performance of individuals by internally stimulating their self-efficacy and passion for work. Under the influence of workplace spirituality, drivers are not only likely to be more “energized to” take part in safety work, but also more “able to”. Based on the model of proactive motivation and conservation of resources theory, a dual-path model was constructed in the present study to explore the influence of workplace spirituality on the safety performance of high-speed railway drivers as well as the mediating effects of self-efficacy and passion for work. Through the analysis of the data from high-speed drivers in 10 railway bureaus of China (N = 325), workplace spirituality was found to be positively related to safety performance. At the same time, the dual-path model was supported, that is, the mediating effects of self-efficacy and passion or work were successfully confirmed, respectively. The present study provides new insights into the management and cultivation of high-speed railway drivers as well as the safety development of organizations both theoretically and practically.

Cost-Effectiveness Oriented Intelligent Maintenance Scheduling Optimization for Traction Power Supply System of High-Speed Railway

In the context of increasing construction of new railways and uninterrupted operation of existing railways in China, maintenance supervisors are facing great challenges to achieve as much maintenance workloads as possible in an efficient and economical way within the required maintenance cycle. Therefore, a cost-effectiveness oriented intelligent maintenance scheduling optimization method for the traction power supply system (TPSS) of high-speed railways (HSRs) is proposed. First, the skill levels of maintenance operators are evaluated by the skill evaluation model, and the workflow model of TPSS maintenance tasks is established to describe the relation between the operator deployment and the maintenance efficiency. Then the bi-objective optimization model which simultaneously maximizes maintenance workload and minimizes cost subject to available resources during a prescribed period is established. A modified bi-objective genetic algorithm is applied to obtain the Pareto solutions of the model and thus optimized maintenance scheduling strategies are formulated. A case study dealing with the maintenance scheduling optimization of a catenary system in China shows that, compared with the current scheme, the proposed strategy can effectively improve maintenance efficiency and meanwhile reduce cost. Furthermore, a prototype of an intelligent maintenance scheduling system (IMSS) for HSR TPSS is developed. The application of IMSS with field data indicates it can help operators formulate highly efficient yet economical maintenance strategies, and meanwhile motivate the transition of current maintenance decision-making policy from traditional experience-based strategies towards scientific “cost-effective” ones.

Neural Network-Based Hybrid Forecasting Models for Time-Varying Passenger Flow of Intercity High-Speed Railways

Time-varying passenger flow is the input data in the optimization design of intercity high-speed railway transportation products, and it plays an important role. Therefore, it is necessary to predict the origin-destination (O-D) passenger flow at different times of the day in combination with the stable time-varying characteristics. In this paper, three neural network-based hybrid forecasting models are designed and compared, named Variational Mode Decomposition-Multilayer Perceptron (VMD-MLP), Variational Mode Decomposition-Gated Recurrent Unit Neural Network (VMD-GRU), and Variational Mode Decomposition-Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory Neural Network (VMD-Bi-LSTM). First, the time-varying characteristics of passenger travel demand under different time granularities are analyzed and extracted by the VMD method. Second, three neural network prediction models are constructed to predict the passenger flow sequence after VMD decomposition and reconstruction. Experimental analysis is performed on the Guangzhou Zhuhai intercity high-speed railway in China, and the passenger flow at different time periods of the day under different time granularities is predicted. The following results were found: (i) The number of hidden neurons and the number of iterations of the hybrid forecasting model have a great impact on the prediction accuracy. The error of the VMD-MLP model fluctuates less and it performs more smoothly than both the VMD-GRU model and the VMD-Bi-LSTM model. (ii) The VMD-MLP, VMD-GRU, and VMD-Bi-LSTM models can basically reduce the MAPE error to less than 10%. With the increase of time granularity, RMSE and MAE errors tend to gradually increase, while the MAPE error tends to gradually decrease. (iii) For passenger flow under a smaller time granularity, the prediction accuracy of the VMD-MLP model is higher, while for passenger flow under a larger time granularity, the prediction accuracy of the VMD-GRU and VMD-Bi-LSTM models is higher. (iv) The proposed neural network-based hybrid models outperform the existing models and the hybrid models perform better than the single models.

Service network design for freight railway transportation: The Chinese case.

Service network design is a typical tactical planning problem faced in freight railway transportation. In this paper, we propose an integer linear programming model for the rail freight service network design problem in the context of the China railway system. The model aims to minimize the overall costs (including train costs and car costs) while satisfying a set of practical restrictions and operational requirements. Our model also considers a distinct operational feature in Chinese railway transportation practice, i.e., the tree-shaped path. A numerical experiment as well as a real-life case study from the China Railway Jinan Group (CR Jinan) is conducted to demonstrate the proposed solution approach. The real-life problem size reaches as many as 139 stations, 473 alternative train services and 562 shipments. Computational results show that our proposed approach is able to obtain quality solutions within a reasonable time frame.

Study on the threshold for superposed deformation of simply supported bridge creep and track slab upwarp in high-speed railway

Based on long-term inspection data about track geometric irregularity of 32 m-span simply supported girder bridge in China Railway High-Speed for nearly 10 years, it is found that there is continuous periodic track longitudinal level (TLL) with different wavelengths, thereinto, simply supported girder bridges creep and ballastless track slab upwarp are the primary reasons. Moreover, there are two types of variation trends for bridge creep of 32 m simply-supported bridges with ballastless track, that is, stable type and increasing type, and the maximum [Formula: see text] (the peak-to-peak value of track longitudinal level) is 7.1 mm for track longitudinal level caused by bridge creep, and the maximum [Formula: see text] caused by upwarp deformation of ballastless track slab is 3.2 mm. Hence, this paper investigated the effects on running performance and structure service performance of random track irregularity and additional track irregularity caused by bridge creep, track slab upwarp deformation or superposition of both, a three-dimensional finite element model of vehicle-track-bridge for dynamic simulation calculation was established, the threshold values for bridge creep and track slab deformation under 350 km/h were proposed based on running performance and structure service performance. Finally, research results show that bridge creep influences on the ride comfort significantly, but running safety barely. Due to the short wavelength of TLL, the track slab upwarp deformation affects both the ride comfort and running safety heavily. The car bodies are more sensitive to bridge creep and produce mainly low-frequency vibration, but the rate of wheel load reduction is more sensitive to the track deformation and shows the high-frequency vibration. For 32 m simply supported bridges without track slab deformation, the [Formula: see text] caused by bridge creep should be limited to 7 mm, and 9 mm in difficult situations. When the [Formula: see text] caused by bridge creep is small (less than 5 mm), the [Formula: see text] caused by track slab upwarp deformation must be less than 4 mm. When both deformations exist simultaneously, the [Formula: see text] caused by superposition deformations of both should not exceed 10 mm, with track slab upwarp deformation not exceeding 4 mm. In the presence of both structural deficiencies, it is suggested that the track slab deformation must be eliminated when it is difficult to eliminate the bridge creep.

The braking performance of pads for high-speed train with rigid and flexible structure on a full-scale flywheel brake dynamometer

The performance of two brake pads with rigid structure (Rigid pad) and flexible structure (Flex pad) were systematically compared and analyzed by braking test on a full-scale flywheel brake dynamometer. 109 brakes were conducted according to test program in China Railway Production Certification (CRCC) standard, including dry condition, recovering brake, static brake, wet condition, and continuous brake, as well as various clamping force to simulate the service of pad on the high-speed train from 50 km/h to 275 km/h of initial brake speed (IBS). Two pads displayed similar tendency of coefficient of friction (COF) when braking at IBS below 200 km/h under dry condition. However, the obvious fading and fluctuation of COF was detected on Rigid pad when the IBS was higher than 200 km/h, stability of COF was just 77%, lower than 91% of Flex pad. More severely, the total wear rate of Rigid pad was 0.13 cm3/MJ, which was 3 times more than 0.04 cm3/MJ of Flex pad. Nevertheless, Rigid pad presented more stable and higher COF under wet condition, and the minimum COF for Rigid pad was 0.262 when braking with 25 L/h of water flow, 2 times higher than 0.12 of Flex pad. All these differences attributed to the adjusting function of pad structure, which gave different contact status on rubbing surface. Flex pad contributed to an intimate contact status with brake disc during braking by adjusting friction elements, resulting in a uniform temperature distribution and stable COF. On the other hand, the intimate contact benefited to the formation of water film during wet braking, decreasing COF observably. This study provides useful information for the structural design of brake pad and braking control strategy for high-speed train.

Effects of joint stiffness degradation on vertical stability of CRTSII slab ballastless track

Joint damage of the China Railway Track System (CRTS)II slab track leads to typically non-uniformity of the longitudinal stiffness of the track slab, which tends to produce different degrees of arching at the joint. The objective of the present study was to investigate the arching mechanism of the non-uniform track slab. The buckling eigenvalues and arch curves of the non-uniform track slab were obtained using the Newton iterative eigenvalue algorithm. An analytical expression for the equilibrium path of the slab with an initial arch was obtained using the energy method. Then, the arching law and stability of the non-uniform track slab were analysed. The following results were obtained. 1) The reduction of the joint bending stiffness significantly affects the arching deformation and buckling mode of track slab, thus, it is necessary to consider the non-uniform characteristics of the track slab when analysing its stability. 2) The most unfavorable wavelength of track slabs is between 6 m, and 7.5 m considering the different joint bending stiffnesses and elastic moduli, and the reduction of the bending stiffness of the joint is the main factor for reducing the most unfavorable wavelength. 3) The reduction of the joint bending stiffness is the most important factor for causing the instability of the track slab, the maximum allowable temperature rise decreased from 83.97 to 49.12 ℃ when the bending stiffness of the joint was reduced by a factor of 100. 4) For improving the stability of the track slab, releasing part of the temperature force in the track slab by reducing the elastic modulus of the joints is a feasible method, the maximum temperature rise of track slabs can be rapidly increased when the elastic modulus of the joints is < 5000 MPa.

Dynamic Responses of Ballastless High-Speed Railway Due to Train Passage With Excitation of Uneven Trackbed Settlement

The ballastless slab track has been widely used in newly-developed high-speed railways in China as well as in other countries for its high stability and low maintenance. However, loss of track vertical alignment due to uneven trackbed settlement will bring adverse impact on train’s running safety and track serviceability. In this study, a train-track-trackbed coupling model has been proposed to investigate the dynamic responses of track structure with the excitation of trackbed settlement with varied patterns. To validate the proposed analysis model, comparisons with both the analytical solution and in- situ measures have been performed. The influences of train speeds, settlement trough amplitude and length are discussed based on this analysis model. It’s indicated that the dynamic responses of train vehicle and track structure increase with increasing in train speed and settlement amplitude within certain settlement length. By introducing the standards for train operation safety and riding comfort, a new trackbed settlement control criteria is proposed. The computation results indicate that the standard for train operation safety is found to be the dominating factor for uneven settlements with the length less than 10 m, while the standard for riding comfort dominates the settlement control criteria in other cases. To further facilitate the settlement control criteria in engineering practices, the ratio of settlement amplitude and settlement length (which is defined as deflection ratio) is adopted to depict the envelop curves for various settlement patterns.

Weekly line planning to improve the match between rail supply and passenger demand

AbstractTraditional railway line planning approaches are used to determine the best train lines during specified periods (e.g., 1 day, 1 h, or several hours). However, mismatches occur relative to the spatiotemporal changes in travel demands over longer time periods (e.g., 1 week). To more effectively match rail supply with passenger demand, a weekly line planning (WLP) model considering both peak and nonpeak passenger demand over an entire week and during all periods of each day is proposed. This model maximizes the defined supply–demand matching utility and minimizes train operational cost. Important constraints to ensure proper daily and hourly train repetition over multiple days are included. A customized genetic algorithm (GA) is developed, which outperforms the CPLEX solver in real‐world cases of high‐speed railways in China. Compared with practical and single‐day planning, WLP shows clear improvement in terms of operational cost, passenger travel speed, and supply–demand matching.

Interlayer shearing and bending performances of ballastless track plates based on high-order shear deformation theory (HSDT) for laminated structures

Based on higher-order shear deformation theory (HSDT), the bending of China Railway Track System type II (CRTS-II) track laminated plates on elastic foundations and interlayer shearing performances are analyzed by meshfree radial point interpolation method (RPIM), which has the properties of the Kronecker function and discretizes the governing equations derived from HSDT. To verify the applicability of the model, the geometric configuration and key parameters of the CRTS-II slab ballastless track structure are analyzed, and the interlaminar slip model of the track structure is derived as a benchmark solution when calculating the track structure using HSDT-RPIM. The accuracy of the derivation is verified by comparing the HSDT-RPIM model with a double-layer slab model considering bidirectional interlayer slip. Then, the effect of resistant slip coefficient on the bending deformation of the track structure was analyzed using the bidirectional interlaminar slip model. The effect of elastic foundation coefficient on the bending of the track structure and the interlayer slip of the track structure (track slab – base slab) was analyzed. Finally, the effects of boundary conditions and elastic foundation coefficients on the interlaminar stresses of the track structure are investigated using HSDT-RPIM, and some interlaminar damages of the track structure are explained.

Research on Carbon Emission Quota of Railway in China from the Perspective of Equity and Efficiency

Under the constraint of total carbon emissions, the allocation of carbon emission quotas of 18 railway bureaus in China is conducted to the realization of carbon emission reduction targets of China’s railway transportation industry. This paper proposes a carbon emission quota model for China’s railway industry from the perspective of equity and efficiency and innovatively undertakes research on the allocation of carbon emission quotas for railway administrations. This paper constructs an econometric model to analyze the impact of various influencing factors on China’s railway operation carbon emission and predicts the total carbon emission of China’s railway operation from 2021 to 2030 by scenario analysis method. From the perspective of equity and efficiency, apply the entropy method to give weight to historical responsibility, egalitarianism, and efficiency principle to obtain the initial allocation value of the carbon emission quota of the operator’s 18 regional railway bureau groups; the ZSG-DEA model is used to obtain the optimal allocation. The results show that railway passenger turnover, freight turnover, vehicle structure, and per capita GDP have a promoting effect on railway carbon emission, and the proportion of clean energy has an inhibitory effect on carbon emission. There is a gap between the distribution results under the single principle and the comprehensive distribution results; the combination of both can more effectively promote the development of the railway industry. From the perspective of equity and efficiency, the carbon emission quota of 18 railway bureau groups in China is high in the east and low in the west. Among them, the Shanghai railway bureau obtains the most carbon emission quota, while the Qinghai–Tibet railway bureau obtains the least carbon emission quota. The research results provide a reference for the railway bureau to coordinate emission reduction and the construction of the railway transport carbon emission market.

Removal of Cr(VI) from aqueous solutions by nZVI-loaded sludge-derived biochar: performance and mechanism.

With the rapid development of highland railways in China, a large amount of heavy metal wastewater was inevitably generated during the manufacturing process of alloy materials required for railway construction. In this paper, pyrolysis of municipal sludge was followed by ball milling to obtain ball milling sludge-derived biochar(SDBC), and then nZVI-loaded SDBC materials (nZVI@SDBC) were prepared by liquid-phase reduction. The effects of different factors on the Cr(VI) removal were investigated. The maximum Cr(VI) adsorption capacity of nZVI@SDBC(2:1) was 178.05 mg/g. The Cr(VI) removal process could be fitted by the Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The Cr(VI) removal mechanism mainly included complexation, reduction, electrostatic interaction, and coprecipitation. The Cr(VI) removal by nZVI@SDBC(2:1) was maintained at over 90% after five replicate experiments. nZVI@SDBC(2:1) was capable of removing most of the Cr(VI) from real electroplating wastewater. The cost of using nZVI@SDBC(2:1) to remove 1 m3of actual wastewater is approximately325.7162 USD/m3.This workprovided a new ideafor thesolutionof Cr(VI)-containingwastewater from the production of railway materials.

A robustness assessment with passenger flow data of high-speed rail network in China

Many existing studies on the robustness assessment of high-speed rail (HSR) networks use HSR services derived from timetable data as an alternative indicator of actual passenger flow. This alternative method has inherent limitations because of the various capacities and seat allocations among different HSR services operated between the same station pairs, leading to a biased evaluation of network robustness. Using an actual ticket sales dataset and HSR timetable data, this study integrates passenger volume into the robustness evaluation of China's HSR network. Moreover, this study proposes systematic methods to assess the robustness of HSR networks at the station and large-scale network levels, with procedure indicators. We design random failure and target attack simulation scenarios in un-weighted, travel-time-weighted, and flow-weighted networks. Simulation is conducted from 2014 to 2016, and with a medium-and long-term HSR network plan in China. Using the methodological advances and empirical studies, we find that China's HSR network became less robust first, and then enhanced robustness strength during network expansion. The significance of integrating passenger flow data in the robustness assessment is confirmed, as the same attack strategy may affect the total travel time and the number of passengers delivered differently. In addition, the proposed indicators are useful for capturing the procedure failure of HSR networks and critical stations.

A comprehensive risk assessment of Chinese high-speed railways affected by multiple meteorological hazards

Meteorological hazards pose a significant risk to the operation and safety of the Chinese railway system. As China Railway High-speed (CRH) has become a vital part of the Chinese transportation infrastructure, an improved understanding of the spatial pattern of multiple hazards across the railway network is urgently needed, especially in the context of accelerated climate change. This study provides a spatial analysis of the dominant meteorological hazards affecting the CRH network (i.e., gales, rainfall, and snow), in terms of both intensity and frequency, and identifies hazard zones according to CRH operating standards. Given that meteorological hazards can lead to speed limitation or disruption of CRH trains, a risk matrix model is developed based on hazard intensity and designated railway speed to comprehensively assess the risk level of CRH lines in China. Risk assessment indicates that CRH lines exposed to hazardous levels of gales, rainfall, and snow account for 6.0%, 29.3%, and 20.0% of the total line length, respectively, while 7.3% of CRH lines are exposed to multiple hazards. Meteorological risk maps for CRH operation reveal hotspot lines that require special adaptive or preventative measures, and emergency protocols to reduce potential losses and disruptions.

Collaborative Damage Detection Framework for Rail Structures Based on a Multi-Agent System Embedded with Soft Multi-Functional Sensors.

With the rapid growth of railways in China, the focus has changed to the maintenance of large-scale rail structures. Multi-agent systems (MASs) based on wireless sensor network (WSNs) with soft multi-functional sensors (SMFS) are adopted cooperatively for the structural health monitoring of large-scale rail structures. An MAS framework with three layers, namely the sensing data acquisition layer, sensor data processing layer, and application layer, is built here for collaborative data collection and processing for a rail structure. WSN nodes with strain, temperature, and piezoelectric sensor units are developed for the continuous structural health monitoring of the rail structure. The feature data at different levels are extracted for the online monitoring of the rail structure. Experiments carried out at the Rail Transmit Base at East China Jiaotong University verify that the WSN nodes with SMFS are successfully assembled onto a 100-m-long track for damage detection. Based on the sensing data and feature data, a neural network data fusion agent (DFA) is applied to calculate the damage index value of the track for comprehensive decisions regarding rail damage. The use of WSNs with multi-functional sensors and intelligent algorithms is recommended for cooperative structural health monitoring in railways.

Joint Optimization of Ticket Pricing and Allocation on High-Speed Railway Based on Dynamic Passenger Demand during Pre-Sale Period: A Case Study of Beijing–Shanghai HSR

Against the background of the gradual deepening of China Railway’s market-oriented reform, and in order to improve the revenue and competitiveness for high-speed railway (HSR) passenger transport, this paper studies the joint optimization problem of the high-speed railway ticket pricing and allocation considering the dynamic demand characteristics of passengers during the pre-sale period. Firstly, we use the compound non-homogeneous Poisson process to describe the passengers’ ticket-purchasing process and use the sparse method to simulate the passengers’ ticket demand during the pre-sale period. Secondly, taking the ticket pricing and allocation as the decision variables and considering the full utilization of the train seat capacity, a stochastic nonlinear-programming mathematical model is established with the goal of maximizing the train revenue. A particle swarm algorithm is designed to solve the model. Finally, this study takes the G19 train running on the Beijing–Shanghai HSR in China as a case study to verify the effectiveness of the model and algorithm. The results show that the joint optimization scheme of ticket pricing and allocation considering dynamic demand yields a revenue of CNY 601,881, which increases the revenue by 1.01% with a small adjustment of the price compared with the fixed ticket price and pre-allocation scheme. This study provides scientific support for the decisions made by railway transportation enterprises, which is conducive to further increasing the potential ticket revenue and promoting sustainable development.

Information processing costs and firm-specific information flows: evidence from the launch of high-speed railway in China

PurposeThe findings suggest that reducing information processing costs as a result of better transportation is an important ingredient in promoting the pricing of firm-specific information. This study aims to discuss the aforementioned issue.Design/methodology/approachThe authors adopt a difference-in-difference (DID) research design to examine the impact of information processing costs on stock price synchronicity with a sample of firms listed in the Chinese A-share market during 2007 and 2017.FindingsThis paper shows that the launch of the high-speed railway (hereafter HSR) in China is associated with lower stock price synchronicity, consistent with the theory that the HSR reduces investors’ information processing costs (cost of monitoring, acquiring and analyzing firm disclosures). This effect is more pronounced for companies located in remote areas than for those located in large cities. Further tests show that the negative association between the launch of HSR and stock price synchronicity is stronger for companies with higher information asymmetries, proxied by higher equity concentration, higher complexity and lower internal control quality.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the literature in the following three ways. First, prior literature relates the effects of geographic distance to information transmission and information asymmetry between insiders and outside investors (e.g. Coval and Moskowitz, 2001; Kang and Kim, 2008; Malloy, 2005). The authors supplement the literature by providing new empirical evidence from an exogenous shock (natural experiment), that is, the launch of HSR, that facilitates transportation and reduces information transmission costs. Second, prior studies have shown that new airline routes that facilitate transportation improve investment and productivity (e.g. Bernstein et al., 2016; Giroud, 2013). The authors extend this stream of studies by showing that the development of HSR networks reduces information processing costs, and promotes the incorporation of firm-specific information in the asset pricing. More importantly, in this study, the authors explicitly incorporate disclosure processing costs theory into our framework thus enhancing our understanding of how and why improvements in transport relate to better market outcomes.