A geographic assessment of the economic development impact of Korean high-speed rail stations Hyojin Kim a , Selima Sultana b, * , Joe Weber c a Department of Geography, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 120 Graham Building, 1009 Spring Garden Street, Greensboro, NC 27412, USA b Department of Geography, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 224 Graham Building, 1009 Spring Garden Street, Greensboro, NC 27412, USA c Department of Geography, The University of Alabama, 204 Farah Hall, Box 870322, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0322, USA ARTICLE INFO Keywords: High-speed rail KTX stations Urban development Node-place model ABSTRACT As part of the balanced-development strategy, the Korean high-speed rail systemÀKorean Train eXpress (KTX)Àis expected to serve not only as the next-generation intercity transit system, but also to have effects on regional development. With increased accessibility, HSR station locations have the potential to act as transport nodes as well as evolving as localized urban places by attracting higher-volume passenger flow and increasing economic activity. This paper evaluates the performance of KTX stations as an economic development strategy using the node-place concept, which simultaneously assesses a station's role as node and place. The calculated scores from the node-place index suggest various outcomes of KTX stations. While balanced stations are performing as both nodes and places and are located in urban centers, imbalanced stations that perform neither role well are found on urban peripheries. Our findings indicate imbalanced stations are less effective for attracting passengers and other economic activities. HSR station vitality is depends on interactions with existing urbanized areas, and those located in urban peripheries typically lack this. Station proximity to central business districts is an important consideration for locating future KTX stations in either mid-size cities or suburban areas, in order to maximize the economic impacts of KTX services. 1. Introduction High-speed rail systems (HSR) are at the forefront of advanced transportation systems worldwide and are important not just for improved mobility but for their potential effects on regional develop- ment. The space-time compression produced by HSR networks can foster economic and social development throughout a country (e.g., in Japan, France, Spain, and China) at several spatial scales such as for a city, regiona, or even the area surrounding a station (Givoni, 2006; Jiao et al., 2017). Locating HSR stations has become an important strategy for decentralizing and improving urban and regional development (Kim, 2000; Priemus, 2008; Garmendia et al., 2012; Yin et al., 2015). For example, the National Planning Policy of South Korea established a balanced development strategy utilizing the KTX network and stations as points for new development with the hope that this will restructure the national urban system (Korea National Statistical Office, 2015). Simi- larly, the locations of new HSR stations in China has been considered as part of that country's urban and economic growth strategy, with medium-sized cities being specifically targeted (Yin et al., 2015). Planning efforts in both countries favor locating rail stations in suburban or peripheral areas to decentralize regional development. HSR stations not only serve as a transportation node but by attracting a higher volume of passenger flows they may have the potential to serve as activity centers for shopping, dining, business meetings, and leisure (Peek and Louw, 2008), thus taking on the functions of an urban central place (Bertolini, 1999). For example, a number of firms and offices relocated near the Lille, France, HSR station because it played a role as a transportation hub serving a large volume of daily commuters and business trips (Ure~ na et al., 2009; Vickerman, 2015). With increased accessibility as a transport node and attractiveness as a business center, Lille also experienced residential population growth in the surrounding area (Ure~ na et al., 2009). Similar impacts have been identified around many HSR stations in Japan (Murayama, 1994; Murakami and Cervero, 2010). These examples suggest that planners can utilize the increased accessibility and attractiveness of high-speed services as a means to develop the regional economy (Wang et al., 2013). Many successful HSR stations (e.g., Lille, Tokyo, Paris, Madrid, Bei- jing, and Seoul) are located either at or near their city centers where high * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: h_kim34@uncg.edu (H. Kim), s_sultan@uncg.edu (S. Sultana), jweber2@ua.edu (J. Weber). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Transport Policy journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tranpol https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2018.02.008 Received 24 March 2017; Received in revised form 22 December 2017; Accepted 9 February 2018 Available online xxxx 0967-070X/© 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Transport Policy xxx (2017) 1–11 Please cite this article in press as: Kim, H., et al., A geographic assessment of the economic development impact of Korean high-speed rail stations, Transport Policy (2017), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2018.02.008