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Givoni, Moshe. Chen, Xueming.

2.2 The emergence of the Integrated hub in China

China is experiencing rapid economic growth and fast expansion of transport infrastructure in
recent years. For example, in China, the number of civil airports increased from 94 in 1990 to
175 in 2010 and is expected to reach 244 in 2020 (Fu, Anming, and Zheng 2012). At the same
time, China is fast developing its HSR network largely to accommodate the increase in demand
for rail transport, i.e., for capacity reasons (ibid.; Chen 2012), similar to what was the case
in Japan and France, albeit at a much larger scale. The intermediate and long-term plans for
the HSR network were first published in 2004 and later updated in 2008 by the then Ministry of
Railways, subject to approval by the State Council (Chen 2012). By the end of 2015, the total
operating length of China’s HSR network had reached 190000 km . The network model of HSR in
1
China is that of a ‘comprehensive national’ and its backbone consists of four east-west and four
north-south lines (ibid.). By 2020, the Chinese HSR network is expected to link all provincial
cities and cities with a population of over half a million (Chen 2012). These figures have
already made China the largest HSR network in the world and an almost ideal case for airline
and railway integration, considering also the regulatory environment that might be more open
for cooperation between the modes (see below).
Moreover, in the development of HSR in China, strategic consideration was given to the location
of the stations, with respect to which cities are served (which is obvious) and the function
of each station as a hub in the HSR network. As Hickman et al. (2015) illustrate (Figure 2,
180), the network consists of several tiers of ‘hub’ stations, or ‘multimodal interchange hubs,’
which range from superlarge to large and medium hubs – those which offer interchange with
multiple transport modes, and more modest small and basic hubs. The position of a station
in the hub hierarchy is determined by the operational volume of the station. Hickman et al.
(2015) note that the Chinese rail hubs often have very large, airport-style, multilevel buildings
(see also Chen, Hickman, and Saxena 2014). In this context, the need to integrate the air and
rail networks has been identified and more than 32 Chinese airports are planning HSR links and
turning the airports into transport hubs (Fu, Anming, and Zheng 2012). According to Givoni
and Banister (2007), for an airport to be suitable for air-rail integration, it would be better to
have the railway station situated at the airport and the station should offer a high-frequency
service (not necessarily HSR service) to many destinations, as noted above.
Rail services in China are categorized according to the types of service offered (see Appendix
A). This categorization lends itself for the consideration of air–rail relationship. Train services
of types G and D – the fastest services – are those where HSR is most likely to successfully
compete with aircraft services. On train services of types C, Z, T, K and S – where routes tend
to be relatively short (and speed varies but, with the exception of C trains, is lower than
200 km/h) – rail is more suitable to complement aircraft services. Considering the Integrated
Hub model (Figure 1), rail services G and D can substitute current aircraft services, while rail
services C, Z, T and K can complement current aircraft services.
3. Shanghai Hongqiao Integrated Transport Hub

Shanghai Hongqiao Integrated Transport Hub best illustrates the concept of the Integrated
Hub in China and it can be used as a case study to analyze air–rail integration as in Chen and
Lin (2016), or as a case study of air-rail disintegration as done in this paper. This section first
describes the physical characteristics of the hub and the supply of services, it then examines
the demand for services at the hub before describing the regulatory framework within which
the hub is operated. The data used and described below are similar to that used by Chen and
Lin (2016) in their analysis.

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