High Speed Railway and Regional Coordinated Development -An Empirical Study on Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region

The vast construction of High Speed Railway (HSR) is an important policy to improve the quality of transportation infrastructure in China. The influence of HSR on coordinated development of regional cities in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region is investigated. The research shows that HSR has a positive effect on the economic growth of the city and benefits the tertiary industry development of the city, while the influence of HSR on population scale of cities is negative. In addition, the impact of HSR on economic promotion in big cities is more effective than in small cities. According to actual situation and empirical analysis, this could be attributed to the siphoning influence of population and economic resources from small cities to the big cities, which is caused by unbalanced regional development and exacerbated by HSR. HSR promotes the development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei cities economy while at the same time it further expands the development gap and lead to more uncoordinated development of regional cities.