Research On Impact Of Zhengzhou-kaifeng Inter-city Railway On Regional Economic Development

Along with the growth of Chinese economy, the regional transport becomes increasingly frequent, and “regionalization” is put on a fast-track under the action of all kinds of geographical advantages and industrial clustering. The underdeveloped transport infrastructures have become one of the important factors responsible for most regions in China that have a slow or retarded economic growth. Intercity railway, as a newcomer player in the transport system, plays an increasingly important function in boosting up regional economic growth.Henan Province, where several intercity railways have been constructed or are under construction, invested big in intercity railway works in recent years. Zhengzhou--Kaifeng Intercity Railway, one important component in the Central China city group intercity railway network and in Henan provincial intercity railway network, is one of the earliest intercity railways constructed. Now that Zhengzhou--Kaifeng Intercity Railway has been operating for more than one year, the authors cannot help but wonder: what are the effects of Zhengzhou--Kaifeng Intercity Railway on regional economic development of Zhengzhou and Kaifeng? This paper attempts to analyze, from the perspective of regional economy, the effects that Zhengzhou--Kaifeng Intercity Railway may have on regional economic development in Zhengzhou and Kaifeng and to make pertinent recommendations on the future operation of this railway.Firstly and theoretically, the “point-axis” theory and city group theory in the regional economy are useful in explicating the role played by transport in regional economic development, and some relevant intercity railway concepts and properties are described. Secondly, a review and a synthesis are given of pertinent domestic and foreign literature on intercity railway's effects upon regional economic development.Next, Zhengzhou--Kaifeng Intercity Railway is used as an empirical research object, which is evaluated and analyzed for its actual effects on economic development in Zhengzhou and Kaifeng regions. Before the evaluation, a brief description of the current situation and transport advancement of the two regions is given so that a better understanding may be gained of their current regional development situation. An evaluation indicator system, to be used in the evaluation, is created that incorporates direct effects and indirect effects of the railway on regional economic development. A gray prediction model is employed in empirical evaluation, which produces predictions of the indicators had Zhengzhou--Kaifeng Intercity Railway not been put into operation in 2015, including direct effect indicators such as weighted average to-and-fro travel time between the two cities as well as indirect effect indicators such as spatial economic liaison degree, industrial structure, employment rate, and urbanization rate of the two cities, with the evaluation of spatial economic liaison incorporating an attractive force model. The “with and without” technique is employed in the analysis to predict the 2015 data without the project(2015-without), and a comparison is made with real 2015 data(2015-with) in the hope of finding their differences. The comparison results indicate that this intercity railway has certain promotional effect on regional economic development in Zhengzhou and Kaifeng regions.Thirdly, the experience of Beijing--Tianjin Intercity Railway, the first of its kind in China, is drawn on in the analysis and its operation and development are reviewed with the finding that the operation of this railway has a considerable boosting effect on regional economic development in Beijing and Tianjin districts. The experience accumulated in Beijing--Tianjin Intercity Railway may provide some reference which may be used in the future operation of Zhengzhou--Kaifeng Intercity Railway.Finally, the following recommendations are suggested for Zhengzhou--Kaifeng Intercity Railway operation having regard to the experience of Beijing--Tianjin Intercity Railway and to the limitations of Zhengzhou--Kaifeng Intercity Railway operation.The number of runs and the operation time of this intercity railway shall be scheduled judiciously such that the railway service is provided in an “urban bus shuttle” manner; the interconnection between urban mass transit and the intercity railway transport shall be intensified; this intercity railway shall be expanded to interconnect with the Central China city group rail transit system; infrastructures shall be constructed to connect this intercity railway to the state rail transport system.The research results demonstrate that the running of Zhengzhou--Kaifeng Intercity Railway invigorates the economy of the two regions and are helpful in shortening the commuting time between the two cities, optimizing their industrial structures, deepening their regional contact, creating employment opportunities, and elevating constantly the regional economic aggregate. Besides, on a national level, intercity railways narrow down spatial and temporal distances among different regions and lower the transaction cost, thus lending a pair of wings for regional economic take-off. However, this research contains some limitations.For instance, this paper focuses its attention on the effects of Zhengzhou--Kaifeng Intercity Railway on regional economic development while neglecting other factors for their contribution to the effects, such as policy and other types of infrastructures, hence a source of limitations. Furthermore, due to limited data sources certain indicators are not fully furnished, which makes the analysis not as complete and sound as desired. The authors will proceed in the future with the study with this as the research subject, expand the research scope, and supplement the data sources so that a more conclusive and convincing analysis may be made.