A Study on the Mechanism of High-Speed Railways’ Influences on Cities Along the Line

High-speed railway as a rapid and convenient modern means of transportation has increasingly been chosen as an important travel tool or even a preferred one for the travel of a specific distance. Based on the knowledge of distance attenuation rules and urban gravitational model, a high-speed railway will shorten the temporal distance between the cities along the line, and further shorten the psychological, social, economic and probability distances, thus resulting in the weak attenuation of economic and social distances between the cities and strengthening the correlation of these cities. It is the weak distance attenuation between the cities along a high-speed railway that highlights the accessibility, openness and node-based features of these cities, and jointly drives the alternation of energy for the development of these cities through the catalytic effects, distribution effects, integration effects and gradient effects of high-speed railways. The influences of high-speed railways on urban development can be surveyed at several stages. The governments as the planners and builders of high-speed railway lines, stations and related cities should take macroeconomic measures in a scientific manner, so as to make best of high-speed railway effects and guide the path of urban development towards an era of high-speed railways.