7.7.4. Sustainability Evaluation

In terms of sustainability, the project enjoys a good prospect of sustainable development. The sustainability is showcased by its advanced technology, immense popularity, high ridership, and sound mechanism. Besides, a virtuous circle is formed as the railway promotes the regional economy in Northeast China, which, in return, increases the demand for the railway. Most importantly, the PDL has revitalized the tourism in the region with its obvious time-space compression effect. The railway pulls the tourist spots close to tourist sources and cuts down the cost of tourists. Since the opening of the PDL, the journey time to tourist scenic spots in Northeast China has plunged across the board.

The average journey time to these tourist scenic spots has decreased from 7.4 h before the start-up of the PDL to 4.9 h at present, a drop of 2.5 h, while that between different cities has shrunk from 7.7 h to 5.4 h, a decrease of 2.3 h (See Table 6) [57]. The closer a tourist scenic spot/city is to the railway, the shorter the journey time. The greatest decrease occurred between Dalian and Harbin, located on each end of the railway, with a decline of over 80%. In general, Dalian, Changchun and Harbin experienced the most obvious changes in journey time ( −3.6 h), followed by Anshan, Liaoyang, Shenyang, Tieling, and other cities along the route ( −2 h). For the cities far away from the railway, the journey time was cut short by less than 1.5 h.


**Table 6.** A comparison of accessibility indices before and after the operating of HSR [55].
