Abstract:

In the approaching Highspeed Rail age,transportation accessibility has the direct impact on the regional development.Taking North Anhui as an example,this paper tries to evaluate accessibility in North Anhui and analyze the differences in spatial patterns with and without highspeed railways.Based on GIS,the evaluation of accessibility is conducted with indicators like isochronous ring,daily accessibility and timeweighted average.And also,the influences of the highspeed railways on cities in North Anhui are taken into consideration.Comparing different transportation conditions in 2009 and 2012,the result shows as follows.Firstly,highspeed railways substantially improved accessibility in North Anhui with isochronous rings expanded and significant optimization of urban daily accessibility realized.The improvements in external accessibility were more prominent than in internal accessibility,meaning the closer relationship with central cities outside North Anhui like Nanjing by shortening commuting time.Secondly,slighter change took place toward the whole accessible spatial pattern with the appearance of highspeed railways,but directional characteristics of traffic mainline became more apparent with highspeed railways built and highspeed railway corridor would be more and more obvious.Thirdly,highspeed railways reduced the equilibrium of accessibility both in North Anhui and within city,leading to the wide gap of accessibility,which means cities nearby benefit more than those far away.Furthermore,cities along the highrailway line possessed an apparent advantage in time.There was considerable variety in quantities to other cities available in one day for cities along the line, while little for others.Highspeed railways brought more opportunities to cities nearby like Bengbu and Chuzhou,but might get cities like Fuyang and Huizhou marginalized,which would lead to disturbance of equilibrium.To conclude,combining with the characters of highspeed railways,fast but fewer stops,it is necessary to upgrade the highspeed railway transportation system,especially on the construction of highspeed intercity railway system. In this way,it can not only enlarge the service range,but also reduce differences in external transportation between cities with highspeed railway passing by and cities without highspeed railways,which benefits both highspeed railways and regional development nearby.It is suggested that cities in North Anhui share the resources of highspeed railways in the area of transportation planning,construction and management.Cities without highspeed railway stations like Huizhou,Fuyang,etc.should optimize their own transportation network and strengthen the relationship with cities like Bengbu,Huainan,etc.in highspeed railway network for better accessibility.And cities with highspeed railway stations like Bengbu should enhance their internal transportation network level and play an important role of highspeed railways in North Anhui.Besides,cities like Huainan,Chuzhou,etc.which is adjacent to big cities,should accelerate highspeed railway docking procedures in order to carry forward the construction of intercity highspeed railways