Economic accessibility of provincial capital cities in China based on the presence of high-speed rails
Received date: 2015-10-25
Request revised date: 2016-02-02
Online published: 2016-04-20
Copyright
Innovations in science and technology have led to a new high-speed transport infrastructure. High-speed rail, for example, is improving regional accessibility through time-space compression, and is promoting changes in regional economic patterns and spatial structures. After launching a "four vertical and four horizontal rail lines", China has entered an age of high-speed rails. This emergence highlights the importance of understanding the impact of high-speed rail on Chinese city accessibility. Using traffic times between provincial capital cities, train trip prices derived from train schedule, and per capita income, this study explored the impact of high-speed rail on the economic accessibility from two important perspectives: rail service price, and rail service consumption capacity. There were three key findings. First, operating high-speed rail increases rail service prices to provincial capitals to different degrees. For example, rail prices increased from 6 to 60 yuan (RMB) for the 9 cities without high-speed rails. In contrast, rail prices increased more than 60 yuan, and as high as 300 yuan, for the 22 cities with high-speed rails. The presence of high-speed rail decreases the correlation between rail service price and temporal accessibility for the 22 cities with high-speed rails from 0.95 to 0.54. In addition, there are significant changes in rail service prices. Conventional rail service prices are found in approximate alignment with the core-edge model. The 22 cities' high-speed rail prices are closely related with the distribution of high-speed rail lines and the prices for cities on horizontal high-speed rails are lower than those for vertical high-speed rails. The second key finding is that considering resident capacities to consume rail service, either conventional or high-speed, provincial capital cities with higher incomes have a higher capacity. Cities with lower incomes have lower rail consumption capacity. As such, the research concludes that urban resident income plays a decisive role in determining consumption capacity. Meanwhile, rail service prices are crucial in determining urban consumption capacity with respect to the rank of consumption capacity. Furthermore, the cost effectiveness of high-speed rail with increasing speed and price mainly depends on hourly economic limit. At the same time, resident income levels shape perceptions about cost effectiveness. Currently, the real cost effectiveness of most provincial capital cities are consistent with their perceptions. The third key finding is that high-speed rail reduces inequalities between cities in terms of rail service price and consumption capacity, but enlarges inequalities for the 22 cities with high-speed rails. In addition, the inequality of rail service consumption capacity is far higher than rail service price.
HUANG Jie , ZHONG Yexi , LI Jianxin , Wen Yuzhao . Economic accessibility of provincial capital cities in China based on the presence of high-speed rails[J]. GEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH, 2016 , 35(4) : 757 -769 . DOI: 10.11821/dlyj201604013
Fig. 1 Spatial distribution of conventional rail service prices of provincial capital cities in China图1 中国省会城市的普铁服务价格分布 |
Tab. 1 Per kilometer price of main conventional and high-speed rail lines表1 普铁和高铁主要线路的单位里程价格 |
| 线路 走向 | 普铁线路 | 里程/km | 硬座/元 | 单位里程价格/元 | 线路 走向 | 高铁线路 | 里程/km | 二等座硬座/元 | 单位里程价格/元 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 纵向 | 北京—上海 | 1463 | 177.5 | 0.12 | 纵向 | 北京—上海 | 1318 | 553 | 0.42 |
| 北京—哈尔滨 | 1249 | 152.5 | 0.12 | 北京—哈尔滨 | 1324 | 540.5 | 0.41 | ||
| 北京—广州 | 2294 | 251 | 0.11 | 北京—广州 | 2298 | 862 | 0.38 | ||
| 北京—武汉 | 1225 | 152.5 | 0.12 | 北京—武汉 | 1229 | 520.5 | 0.42 | ||
| 武汉—广州 | 1069 | 138.5 | 0.13 | 武汉—广州 | 1069 | 463.5 | 0.43 | ||
| 北京—深圳 | 2372 | 254.5 | 0.11 | 上海—深圳 | 1623 | 478.5 | 0.29 | ||
| 北京—九江 | 1314 | 163.5 | 0.12 | 横向 | 石家庄—太原 | 232 | 68 | 0.29 | |
| 九江—深圳 | 1058 | 135.5 | 0.13 | 徐州—西安 | 854 | 229.5 | 0.27 | ||
| 横向 | 石家庄—太原 | 225 | 37.5 | 0.17 | 郑州—西安 | 523 | 239 | 0.46 | |
| 徐州—兰州 | 1536 | 180.5 | 0.12 | 上海—成都 | 1971 | 602.5 | 0.31 | ||
| 上海—成都 | 2153 | 277 | 0.13 | 上海—长沙 | 1169 | 257.5 | 0.22 | ||
| 上海—昆明 | 2660 | 278.5 | 0.10 | 南昌—长沙 | 342 | 157 | 0.46 |
Fig. 2 Spatial distribution of high-speed rail service prices of provincial capital cities in China图2 中国省会城市的高铁服务价格分布 |
Fig. 3 Correlation between average price and average time of rail service图3 省会城市铁路服务价格与时间可达性的相关性 |
Fig. 4 Resident capacity to consume conventional rail service图4 省会城市城镇居民消费普铁服务能力 |
Fig. 5 Resident capacity to consume high-speed rail service图5 省会城市城镇居民消费高铁服务能力 |
Fig. 6 Cost effectiveness of high-speed rail with increasing speed and price图6 高铁提速提价的性价比 |
Tab. 2 Coefficient of variation of economic accessibility (%)表2 普铁和高铁网络下经济可达性变异系数(%) |
| 经济可达性 | 情景 | 普铁网络 | 高铁网络 | 变化 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 铁路服务价格 | 所有城市 | 26.08 | 22.39 | -3.69 |
| 高铁城市 | 18.28 | 22.56 | 4.29 | |
| 铁路服务消费能力 | 所有城市 | 38.28 | 29.01 | -9.27 |
| 高铁城市 | 31.46 | 31.99 | 0.53 |
注:两种情景为“所有城市”和“高铁城市”,“所有城市”即为31个省会城市,“高铁城市”为22个已经开通高铁的省会城市。 |
The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
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