Review of Impact of High-speed Rail on Urban Economic Spatial Structure

High-speed rail (HSR) is the main framework of a regional rapid comprehensive transport network. As an efficient and fast mode between cities, it plays an important role in improving passenger transport capacity and alleviating existing rail freight pressure. This paper reviews the state-of-the-art results of impacts of HSR on urban economic spatial structure from the aspects of urban accessibility, factor market, and spatial structure, and then summarizes the common conclusions and differences. The direct impact of HSR (network) on intercity travel demand is revealed by analyzing the degree of change in accessibility and whether it is balanced across regions. The improvement of urban accessibility further reshapes the regional spatial distribution of production factors, accelerates the transfer of capital and population, promotes industrial development and employment, and has a profound impact on land and housing markets. The interaction of various market factors brings great opportunities to urban macro-economy, especially the spatial reconstruction of HSR stations. Systematic evaluation of the impact of HSR on the urban economic spatial structure can provide a reference for the administration to make decisions on HSR investment, planning and construction, and impact assessment. Combined with theoretical research and practical experiences, and based on the background of the new era, this paper reveals some key research directions: the first is to study the economic benefits and revenue distribution of HSR investment and the impact of HSR on economic development and spatial distribution of factors, considering urban agglomeration as a new interest group; the second is to investigate the impact of HSR commuting behavior on capital, population, land, and other factor markets, and analyze the key factors affecting HSR commuting such as station location and ticket price changes; the third is to consider the new changes in the impact of HSR competition and cooperation between cities and the mixed running mode of passenger and freight on urban economic spatial structure; the last is to analyze the impact of HSR on the urban economy at a micro level by utilizing emerging technologies like machine learning and big data. © 2022 Science Press. All rights reserved.