A Comparative Analysis of the Characteristics of High-Speed Railway Network in China’s Metropolitan Areas

The role of high-speed rail network in the metropolitan areas is becoming more and more important, which has become one of the main ways of the city personnel contacts. This paper mainly uses the social network analysis method to revamp the six national metropolitan areas: metropolitan area of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, metropolitan area of Hachang, metropolitan area of Chengyu, metropolitan area of Yangtze River Delta, metropolitan area of Zhongyuan, metropolitan area of Beibu Gulf make a comparative analysis. The macroscopic and microscopic angles are used to calculate and compare the overall network characteristics, centrality, core-periphery structure and cohesion subgroups. It is mainly due to the fact that the high-speed rail network structure of the six major metropolitan areas needs to be improved. Metropolitan area of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and metropolitan area of Zhongyuan are relatively good the integrity and the connectivity. Metropolitan area of Yangtze River Delta is the highest utilization rate of resources. Metropolitan area of Hachang is the highest network density. Metropolitan area of Chengyu is outstanding between core and periphery. Metropolitan area of Beibu Gulf network of organizations is broken. Therefore, when layout of high-speed rail infrastructure, we should consider the high-speed rail network resource utilization, balance high-speed rail traffic within the metropolitan areas, thus enhancing the city’s high-speed rail accessibility and convenience.