Spatiotemporal evolution of China’s railway network in the 20th century: An accessibility approach Jiaoe Wang a,b, * , Fengjun Jin a , Huihui Mo a,c , Fahui Wang c a Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China b Department of Geography and Anthropology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA c China Communications and Transportation Association, Beijing 100825, China article info Article history: Received 27 April 2007 Received in revised form 17 June 2009 Accepted 12 July 2009 Keywords: Railway network Accessibility Spatiotemporal patterns Urban systems China abstract The interrelatedness of transportation development and economic growth has been a con- stant theme of geographic inquiries, particularly in economic and transportation geogra- phy. This paper analyzes the expansion of China’s railway network, the evolution of its spatial accessibility, and the impacts on economic growth and urban systems over a time span of about one century (1906–2000). First, major historical events and policies and their effects on railway development in China are reviewed and grouped into four major eras: preliminary construction, network skeleton, corridor building, and deep intensification. All four eras followed a path of ‘‘inland expansion.” Second, spatial distribution of accessi- bility and its evolution are analyzed. The spatial structure of China’s railway network is characterized by ‘‘concentric rings” with its major axis in North China and the most acces- sible city gradually migrating from Tianjin to Zhengzhou. Finally, the study indicates that railway network expansion has significantly improved economic development and heavily influenced the formation of urban systems in China. Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Railways are an important component of transportation systems, and have played a key role in economic and social development in many countries since the 19th century. Taking the papers published in this journal as an example, much of the literature on railways has focused on their economic sustainability in the era of rising competition from air and high- way transportation. Among others, Rühl (1991) proposed a financial management mechanism to improve the competitive- ness of European railways’ international services against other transportation modes; Blum et al. (1992) discussed the opportunities and challenges for high-speed railways in Europe; and Bharill and Rangaraj (2008) reported the revenue man- agement practice in India’s railway system in comparison with other modes. More recent work concerns the optimal railway network design in terms of transportation cost and quality. For instance, Jeong et al. (2007) addressed a hub-and-spoke net- work problem for the European freight railway system, and Kreutzberger (2008) examined the influence of some network design approaches on the performance of intermodal rail transportation in Europe. However, very little is reported in recent literature on railway network expansion and its impacts on economic development and urban growth. In order to properly examine railway expansion and evolution in China, it is necessary to revive what was once a tradition in transportation geog- raphy – spatiotemporal analysis. 0965-8564/$ - see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.tra.2009.07.003 * Corresponding author. Address: Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China. Fax: +86 10 64889302. E-mail address: wangje.03s@igsnrr.ac.cn (J. Wang). Transportation Research Part A 43 (2009) 765–778 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Transportation Research Part A journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tra