Railway’s Impact on Regional Socio-Economic Systems: Impact Degree Evaluation—A Case Study of Beijing-Shanghai Existing Line

This article establishes railway’s impact aggregative indicators by using Correlation Analysis and Principal Component Analysis. With the correlative data of Beijing-Shanghai existing line from 2000 to 2008, the paper evaluates the level of railway’s impact on regional socioeconomic systems through Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method. According to the DEA results, it can be divided into three levels: first level is Beijing and Shanghai; second is Tianjin, Jiangsu and Shandong; and the third is Hebei and Anhui. The results of this paper could be used as references for the future planning and operational management of Chinese railway network: (1) Railway’s influence on the starting and end station is stronger than that on the intermediate stations. In view of this, more railways or higher technical railways could be considered to build in the higher impact areas; (2) In order to meet the needs of passenger and freight transport, it’s better to separate passenger and freight lines; (3) Although the overall influence is lower at the middle stations, the impact on the systems of resource and environment is high.