A spatiotemporal analysis of the robustness of high-speed rail network in China

Abstract Most studies on the robustness of high-speed rail (HSR) network examine the issue at the aggregate level and consider a fixed period (e.g., a day or a month), regardless of when and where the disruption occurs. This study proposes a holistic framework of assessing the impact of node cascading disruptions in HSR network considering different affected times-of-day and geographic regions. A weighted network efficiency metric is proposed to assess network performance considering both travel time and train frequency along the topological shortest path. Analysis of China’s HSR finds that (1) the network is less robust to disruptions occurring in East China or along the Harbin-Hong Kong corridor; (2) Disruptions during 10:00–15:00 have the largest impact; (3) lockdowns during COVID-19 outbreak in Jan-Feb 2020 led to 14.5% reduction in overall network efficiency. The results generate insights into further development of the HSR network and provide policy support for HSR resilience-enhancing strategies.