Evolution of the economy and convenience of railway container freight stations in Northeast China: Coordination or imbalance?

Currently, there is an urgent need to strengthen the evaluation of freight demand and spatial layout of railway container stations in China. This study, focusing on Northeast China, uses proprietary data from 95306 Railway Freight E-commerce Platforms, including 1.25 million railway container freight records from 432 stations. Using complex network models, community structures, GE matrix models, and the “center-periphery” theory, this study analyzes the evolutionary characteristics and coordination of these stations in terms of economy and convenience. The findings show that: (1) Economically strong stations cluster in the “T”-shaped Harbin-Dalian and Binzhou-Binsui lines, while high-convenience stations are concentrated in the south and northeast, showing spatial disparities. (2) The “center” region is composed of multiple small “center” stations, each of which has its own “periphery” region. The core effect of each small “center” gradually diminishes as the location changes from railway trunk lines to branch lines. (3) From 2013 to 2020, coordinated stations dominated, but the gap between imbalanced and coordinated stations gradually narrowed. Most stations showed strong stability, while some shifted dynamically between high and low-level quadrants, indicating developmental fluctuations. Based on these findings, this paper proposes relevant policy recommendations to enhance the coordinated development of stations.