Connectivity and Accessibility of the Railway Network in China: Guidance for Spatial Balanced Development

Jing Fan, Ye Li, Yu Zhang, Xiao Luo and Changxi Ma
Additional contact information
Jing Fan: The Key Laboratory of Road and Traffic Engineering, Ministry of Education, Shanghai 201804, China
Ye Li: The Key Laboratory of Road and Traffic Engineering, Ministry of Education, Shanghai 201804, China
Yu Zhang: The Key Laboratory of Road and Traffic Engineering, Ministry of Education, Shanghai 201804, China
Xiao Luo: The Key Laboratory of Road and Traffic Engineering, Ministry of Education, Shanghai 201804, China
Changxi Ma: Lanzhou Jiaotong University, Lanzhou 730070, China

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 24, 1-18

Abstract: Good connectivity and accessibility help to enhance the competitiveness of regions and countries. This research provides a detailed analysis of the connectivity and accessibility of the Chinese railway network. The studied period starts in 1949 and ends in 2017. The research scope covers the railway system of the entire country (except Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao). Instead of focusing on main cities as research objects, this paper provides more detailed insights by using counties as the basic research units. The analysis shows that the achieved connectivity has been increasing continuously over the study period. Four accessibility indicators (temporal location indicator, weighted average travel time, daily accessibility, and potential indicator) provide comprehensive and complementary results, indicating that the most accessible cities and units are located in the southeastern part of the Hu line. In addition, higher economic level, or higher population density, is correlated with higher accessibility. Furthermore, the current network exhibits an unbalanced spatial distribution pattern, with an underdeveloped west. All the indicators show that the accessibility of the northwest and southwest regions is the lowest. Based on these conclusions, regional policy-making suggestions can be made to guide a rational railway network expansion and facilitate the equality and sustainable economic development of regions. The future railway system development is suggested to focus more on enhancing inner and inter-region communication in the west of China and attach importance to poverty-stricken counties in support of balanced regional growth and development. The railway development of the eastern regions needs to focus on optimizing the structure of the network as well as reasonably organizing railway routes.

Keywords: Chinese railway network; connectivity; accessibility analysis; high-speed railway (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/24/7099/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/24/7099/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:24:p:7099-:d:296730

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().