The high-speed rail project, as planned, will pass through 20 provinces and cities from North to South, offering an opportunity to form a completely new development space along the length of the country. However, even now, this opportunity needs to be realized synchronously, with a clear and long-term philosophy.
What advantages would a chain of cities forming along the high-speed rail line have?
The most important advantage is the connectivity and interactivity among these cities. This capability enables high-speed rail cities to easily become regional service centers, reducing pressure on neighboring administrative, cultural, and social hubs.
Illustration: AI
Therefore, high-speed rail cities should be planned and designed to become service centers with compatible infrastructure. Accordingly, priority infrastructure will include static transportation, warehousing, transportation connection hubs, shopping malls, and product introduction centers.
With the vision of becoming service centers, these high-speed rail cities need a clear direction in terms of their functions to avoid the ambition of becoming multifunctional mega-cities. As the residents of these cities are mostly traders and service providers, urban design must consider the cultural aspects, lifestyles, and living needs of these intrinsic citizens.
Even at this moment, while the North-South high-speed rail project is still in the planning stage, it is crucial to define the opportunities it presents to make the best use of them and avoid potential negative impacts.
For instance, the service cities forming along the rail line should be new towns where the stations are located. They will not be existing administrative centers, nor will they add pressure to old towns.
Illustration: AI
The high-speed rail stations, situated in these rail cities, will not merely be traditional stations but a cluster of accessible services. The station will serve as a shopping and regional product introduction center, a cargo transaction and warehousing hub, a travel service center, and a transportation connection hub (including parking lots, car rental services, and bus terminals…).
As most residents of these cities are engaged in trade and services, the planning will focus on compact cities with mainly apartment buildings and rental housing, rather than low-rise houses.
High-speed rail cities will be public transportation-oriented, well-planned, and function-prioritized.
With this vision of the high-speed rail line’s potential, we can foresee the addition of several rail cities with similar functional characteristics. What could this mean for the country’s development space?
Firstly, administrative centers will experience reduced pressure as a natural shift in the population occurs.
Secondly, positioning rail cities as service centers with transportation connection hubs will decrease the demand for private road transportation between regions.
While high-speed rail may not easily yield economic efficiency in terms of transportation, embracing the opportunity to form rail cities early on allows us to envision a positive outlook for the country’s development space.
