The evolution of spatial equity of high-speed rail accessibility in China: An operation frequency based approach

Abstract

The spatial equity of high-speed rail (HSR) accessibility in China has been a research topic for years. Most of current researches do not consider the impact of HSR operation frequency on accessibility. This study proposes an improved accessibility measurement taking frequency as an important factor and then analyzes the HSR accessibility and its spatial equity in China for the years of 2015, 2018, and 2021. Having defined spatial equity as the disparity of accessibility distribution, this study applies the Theil index to explore spatial equity and its changes over the three stages, as well as the regional difference among city groups based on geographical locations and administrative levels. The results demonstrated that the spatial distribution of HSR services accessibility in China was high in the East and low in the West. Only a few cities have the highest level of IAS (Improved Accessibility Score) which leads to a strong polarization in frequency-based accessibility. Spatial equity of accessibility has improved from 2015 to 2021, but HSR services developed more equally than HSR infrastructure networks from 2018 to 2021. When grouped by geographical locations, the West region has the worst spatial equity regarding IAS; however, the Northeast region has the worst spatial equity of OAS (Original Accessibility Score) in 2021. When grouped by cities’ administrative levels, the group of provincial capitals has better spatial equity regarding IAS but did not have better spatial equity of OAS until 2021.

Keywords:

• Frequency
• high-speed rail services
• improved accessibility measurement
• regional difference
• spatial equity

Notes

1 In China, provinces (as well as the four municipalities) are under the direct jurisdiction of the central government. Prefecture-level cities are under the jurisdiction of provinces. The provincial capital is the prefecture-level city which is the administrative center of the corresponding province. Sub-provincial cities are upgraded from prefecture-level cities by the government, whose mayor has the same administrative level as the vice-governor of a province. There are 15 sub-provincial cities in China, of which 10 are the provincial capitals, the other 5 are Dalian, Qingdao, Ningbo, Xiamen, and Shenzhen. This study summarizes municipalities, provincial capitals, and sub-provincial cities into one category because they are at a proximate status in terms of administrative level. For the detailed administrative levels of Chinese cities, see Wang and Yeh (2020) p. 6 and Li et al. (2015) p. 179.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China (DUT22GJ203) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project No. 71971038, 52272308, 71701030).