Page 365 - 360.revista de Alta Velocidad - Nº 6

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número 6 - junio - 2018. Pág 363 - 385

The configurations of Chinese national urban systems in both

high-speed railway and airline networks

Yang, Haoran

Dobruszkes, Frédéric

Wang, Jiao’e

Dijst, Martin

Utrecht University 1
Université libre de Bruxelles
Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Abstract
Although entering the transportation market at a later stage in 2003, Chinese HSR
networks have become the largest in the world and are even growing faster than
airline networks. Using 2013 origin/destination (O/D) passenger flow data, we
compare the spatial configurations of Chinese urban systems in both high-speed
railway and airline networks at the national scale. The outcome shows that, HSR
dominant cities and links are mainly centralized in the middle and eastern parts of
China offering regional connections, whereas air dominant cities and links are evenly
distributed in the whole China offering interregional connections. That is mainly a
result of that compared to airline networks, the strength of cities in HSR networks
is more sensitive to socio-economic performance of cities, while the strength of
links in HSR networks is more sensitive to the geographical distance between linked
cities. Furthermore, HSR networks promote agglomeration economies of urban
systems along the trunk lines in specific regions, whereas air networks relatively
contribute to a more balanced urban development in China.

Keywords: High Speed Railways (HSR), airlines, passenger flows, China, urban systems

1 Haoran Yang. Utrecht University, the Netherlands. Email: h.yang2@uu.nl (corresponding author)
Dobruszkes, Frédéric. Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Belgium Email: fdobrusz@ulb.ac.be
Wang, Jiao’e. Inst. of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, China. Email: wangje@igsnrr.ac.cn
Dijst, Martin. Utrecht University, the Netherlands. Email: M.J.Dijst@uu.nl

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