The fast growth of a high-speed rail network in the People’s Republic of China has widened market access and boosted incomes. Expanding access to high-speed rail even further would help solve some of the country’s toughest problems.

Extending the network and improving access to it would benefit poorer parts of the country. The high-speed rail system has already helped offset some of the sharp divisions between rich and poor in China, a situation that often equates to an urban-rural divide.

High-speed rail expansion has also taken some of the pressure off cities that are struggling with overpopulation and pollution, by making it easier for those cities to spread to less congested areas and for other centers to grow.

Those are some of the conclusions of research done for the Asian Development Bank Institute that looked at the effects of the high-speed rail network on 110 cities in China.

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About the authors

Wei Zou is a professor and director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Wuhan University in the People’s Republic of China.

Liangheng Chen and Junke Xiong are associate researchers at the institute.

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