Types of Intercity Rail Network and the Impacts on Urban Agglomeration

Intercity rail distinguishes itself from highway and conventional rail in terms of daily communication between different cities and the adoption of public transport operation mode. Based on the classification of urban agglomeration, the intercity rail network morphologies fall into four categories: growth pole network, polycentric network, dynamic network and balanced network. These types are supported by typical cases of interactions between urban agglomeration and intercity rail network in the past few decades. The experience of the cases is conducive to provide reference for mutual promotion between intercity rail construction and spatial development in developing and potential urban agglomeration areas.