Railway Network Expansion and Spatial Accessibility Analysis in China: 1906~2000

In this paper, the indexes and models are used to measure the accessibility of transport network, such as total transport distance Di and accessibility coefficient. On the basis of Shortest Route Model, the evolution of railway network, changes of the spatial structure in accessibility, the relationship between railway network distribution and spatial economic growth in the past several hundred years in China are analyzed. The results show that the evolution of railway network in China experienced 4 stages, i.e., initial stage, constructing stage, extending stage and optimizing stage, but the speed of spatial expanding is relatively slow. One hundred years' construction of railway leads to time-space convergence. The spatial structure of accessibility displays different circles with one core, and radiates from North China to the surroundings. The area, higher than the national average level in accessibility, expands from North China to East China and Central China, and the center of accessibility moved from Tianjin to Zhengzhou gradually.