High-Speed Railway Access Pattern and Spatial Overlap Characteristics of the Yellow River Basin Urban Agglomeration

With the rapid development of high-speed railway (HSR) transportation in China, its impact on regional spatial patterns and shaping has become increasingly significant. This study took seven urban agglomerations in the Yellow River Basin as the research object, using the 2 h HSR access time in the Yellow River Basin to comparatively analyze the differences in HSR access in the urban agglomeration in the Yellow River Basin, and using the 3 h HSR access to central cities as the background to conduct regional division and overlapping space identification through cross-regional economic links, before finally selecting the overlapping city of Changzhi for long-term space development strategic planning. The main conclusions were as follows: First, the low-value area of HSR travel time in the Yellow River Basin urban agglomerations was biased toward the center of the urban agglomerations, while the peripheral areas were relatively high-value travel traffic circles, and the HSR travel time showed a circular spatial pattern characteristic of continuous expansion from the center to the peripheral areas. Four urban agglomerations in the upper reaches of the city achieved a 2 h access pattern within the urban agglomeration, whereas three urban agglomerations in the middle and lower reaches of the city only reached the 2 h access level in the center. Second, the Yellow River Basin was divided into six community spaces using the SLPA model based on the economic linkage between the central city and other cities, which were filtered by the 3 h access time from the central city to each city for HSR travel. Three of the six communities produced overlapping spaces, i.e., Community 3 and Community 4 produced overlapping spaces containing Linfen, Community 3 and Community 5 produced overlapping spaces containing Changzhi, Handan, and Xingtai, and Community 4 and Community 5 produced overlapping spaces containing Yuncheng and Sanmenxia. Third, the overlapping space of Changzhi City was selected as a case study for a visionary strategic planning outlook. Combining the geographic location characteristics and future development opportunities of Changzhi, we can try to transform a pass-through node like Changzhi into a hub node in the future, strengthening the gateway status and expanding the hinterland. According to the results of the research and analysis, policymakers can try to implement the expansion and renovation of HSR trunk lines, break the transportation bottlenecks in less developed areas, improve the coverage of the HSR network, and establish a “cross-urban agglomeration” cooperation and coordination mechanism.