Properties of Chinese railway network: Multilayer structures based on timetable data

Hui Zhang, Houdun Cui, Wei Wang and Wenbo Song

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2020, vol. 560, issue C

Abstract: Railway is a main transportation mode for medium-distance and long-distance travel in China, which provides various services to satisfy different type of traffic demand. Recent studies exhibit that railway network is a complex network that has hierarchical structures. In this paper, we employ a network-based method to evaluate the structure of railway network as a multilayer network according to railway routes with different prefix letter. A node failure process is proposed to identify important stations. Results show that the degree of nodes follows a shifted power law distribution and a few nodes have large degree. The railway network is an assortative network with obvious community structures. Moreover, the connection among layers is heterogeneous. Dynamic node failure process shows that nodes with large degree play key roles in the railway network. Finally, we analyze the railway network performance from 2014 to 2018. The results imply that the efficiency increases year by year, which mainly because more and more conventional stations have been built to comprehensive stations that also serve high speed railway lines.

Keywords: Railway network; Multilayer structures; Network evolution; Timetable data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:560:y:2020:i:c:s037843712030618x

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2020.125184

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