The impact of Chinese Shanghai–Nanjing high-speed rail on regional accessibility

Abstract

In this paper, we develop a new method to calculate regional accessibility with geography information system (GIS), using the Shanghai–Nanjing high-speed rail (SNHR) as an example. We calculated the indexes of normal accessibility, average accessibility and weighted average accessibility before and after SNHR was put into service. We also calculated the changes of the indexes. The results showed that the values of all the indexes decreased and that regional accessibility was improved by SNHR. But, the reduction degrees were not the same in all different places. In addition, we discussed the potential impact of accessibility changes. Accessibility changes will promote sustainable development and regional cooperation. At the same time, as the imbalance of accessibility changes, the gap of competitiveness levels between regions along the line and edge regions will be expanded.

Keywords:

• accessibility
• potential impact
• SNHR
• China
• GIS

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by A Project Funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 41101107 and 41271149) and Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (No. 20113207120015). Comments from two anonymous reviewers significantly improved this manuscript.