How access distance to high-speed rail stations affects individual travel behavior in small cities: A case study of the Chengdu-Chongqing corridor

The rapid development of high-speed rail (HSR) has generated significant economic and social impacts and garnered extensive scholarly attention. However, there remains a lack of analysis on how access distance to HSR stations affects local residents’ travel behavior from the perspective of the individual. This study attempts to answer this question by utilizing large-scale railway travel data from residents of small cities in China. The raw dataset was provided by the Chengdu Railway Bureau, covering the period from January 1, 2014, to March 20, 2018. Taking the Chengdu-Chongqing HSR as a case study, we used the spatial distance between the residential addresses of individuals and HSR stations as a proxy for accessibility, and we selected over 340,000 residents from eight small cities along the route as observations. A negative binomial regression was employed to estimate the impact of access distance to HSR stations on individual travel behavior. The results indicate that individuals’ access distance to HSR stations has significantly negative effects on the number of HSR trips. Variables representing the individual characteristics of previous travel behavior, ticket purchasing behavior, social status, and wealth significantly affect individual travel frequency. More importantly, the study also demonstrates heterogeneity in the effects of HSR station accessibility on different groups in terms of sex, age, and place of residence. Compared with females and rural residents, the negative impact of HSR station accessibility on male and urban residents' travel behavior is less pronounced. The analysis also shows that HSR station accessibility negatively affects individual travel frequency across different groups, with middle-aged and elderly groups being more sensitive to accessibility constraints. These findings enrich existing research on travel behavior.