The High-Speed Rail (HSR) was first constructed and operated in Japan in 1964. Today, several countries around Europe, Asia, and America have HSR services. As an emerged speedy ground transportation method, the HSR cooperates and competes with road, air, and water transportation and also contributes to economic development and passenger transportation. China proposed a National High-Speed Rail Network Plan in 2008 and began to build “JingHu Line,” which connects Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai, in the same year.
This thesis focuses on the HSR construction in China, especially the construction of “JingHu Line.” Beijing and Tianjin, the main cities served by this line, began to reconstruct the existing rail stations to meet the technical norms of HSRs. This thesis draws on existing literatures about urban development, urban form and high-speed rail station to evaluate the impact of the HSR station on the surrounding area. It specially focuses on the reconstruction of high speed rail station in Beijing and Tianjin to understand the connection between HSRs and other urban transport methods, the emergence of new urban spaces and the land-use change in the station area.
In the thesis, I firstly review current literatures and define three important terms, “high-speed rail,” “urban form” and “rail station area,” which are the basis for this research. In the next section, I study the developing history of high-speed rail in the world, which is the background for this research and the main motivation for the construction of Chinese High-Speed Network. Moreover, I review the features of HSR transportation, because the unique features of HSRs directly influence the changing form of surrounding areas. The “Urban Catalysts Theory” and “Linkage Theory” as the theoretical underpinning for this research are introduced in the chapter three. These two theories are tools to understand interactions between the HSR station and the surrounding area. The chapter three also reviews current literatures relating the influence of HSR station on a city. In the case study, I look at constructions of the HSR station in Beijing and Tianjin to learn how the reconstruction projects were planned and built, how HSRs connect to the inner city transportation network and how the urban form change in the station area. Through this research, we can learn interactions between the construction of HSR station and the development in the station area. Also, the review of reconstruction projects of HSR station in Beijing and Tianjin provides experiences to other cities, which are going to have HSR services in following years.