基于高铁网络的中国省会城市经济可达性

基于列车时刻表中的省会城市间交通时间以及相应票价数据和各省市城镇居民家庭人均收入数据,以铁路服务价格、城镇居民消费铁路服务能力两方面为突破口,分析高铁网络对中国省会城市经济可达性的影响。结果表明：① 高铁网络不同程度地提升了省会城市铁路服务价格,降低了铁路服务价格与时间可达性的相关性,同时改变了铁路服务价格的分布格局。② 城镇居民消费铁路服务能力等级差异明显,其中收入水平发挥着决定性作用,而铁路服务价格的影响也不容忽视。③ 高铁网络缩小了“所有城市”铁路服务价格、铁路服务消费能力分布的不公平性,但扩大了“高铁城市”铁路服务价格、铁路服务消费能力分布的不公平性;铁路服务消费能力分布的不公平程度高于铁路服务价格分布的不公平程度。

Economic accessibility of provincial capital cities in China based on the presence of high-speed rails

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.