▲ Data chart: high-speed railway station construction should be practical after all, and its economic and social benefits should be comprehensively considered. It cannot be built for construction. Picture/Xinhua News Agency In recent years, the large-scale construction of high-speed railway has led to the addition of a large number of high-speed railway stations in China. At the same time, the news that high-speed railway stations with an investment of more than 10 million yuan, such as Hainan Danzhou Haitou Station, have been completed and not used has also triggered heated discussion from all walks of life. According to the statistics of China Business Daily, at least 26 high-speed railway stations across the country have not been opened or closed due to remote location, insufficient supporting facilities and low passenger flow.
As we all know, the cost of high-speed railway stations is very high, often tens of millions, even hundreds of millions of yuan. Some places have made a lot of efforts and investment to strive for the high-speed railway station. But now, dozens of high-speed railway stations have been left idle all over the country, which is really regrettable and staggering.
These high-speed railway stations are destined to be idle for different reasons. If some involve the adjustment of urban planning, some are unscientific in site selection, and some are too expensive to bear... But the main reason is that some places have mixed many subjective factors and motivations in the question of whether to build high-speed railway stations and how to select sites, which violates the scientificity of planning and construction, It deviates from the actual needs of urban development.
There are two outstanding performances in this respect. First, some places ignored the actual situation and unilaterally used the construction of high-speed railway stations as a lever to leverage the land development of new urban areas, so as to habitually locate high-speed railway stations in remote areas far away from urban areas. In the end, if the urban development planning is adjusted or the development speed is not as fast as expected, the high-speed railway station will easily become idle and shut down due to low passenger flow, insufficient supporting facilities and other problems.
Second, many local governments habitually link the possession of high-speed railway stations with their political achievements and city image, and tend to show more enthusiasm than the actual development needs of the city when investing in the construction of high-speed railway stations. For example, an ordinary prefecture level city with a low population and economy has built 9 high-speed railway stations at one go, which is obviously beyond the normal needs. As a result, it is inevitable for some high-speed railway stations to "send fewer than 200 passengers per day, and stop handling passenger transport business after only four years of operation".
In theory, the high-speed railway lines set up in one place really play an important role in the comprehensive development of the local area. It is not only related to the external traffic accessibility of the city, the convenience of citizens' travel, infrastructure investment, but also often an important dimension to measure the level of urban development.
Therefore, in the past period of rapid development of high-speed railway construction, not only the local government was keen on building high-speed railway stations, but also many local people had some ideas and expectations about it, so that some places even staged fierce competition for high-speed railway stations in the past few years.
However, the construction of high-speed railway station should be practical after all, and its economic and social benefits should be considered comprehensively. It should not be built for the purpose of construction. It can be said that from whether to build, how much to build, how big to build, to the specific planning and location, we should start from reality, scientifically and objectively evaluate its actual needs and construction and operation costs, more rational consideration, less blind investment in "big work and fast development".
In particular, with the social and demographic situation, the stage of urbanization and the major changes in real estate and other industries closely related to large-scale infrastructure construction, more scientific and prudent thinking should be given to the construction of large-scale infrastructure projects, including high-speed railway stations, and adhere to the principle of living within your means and seeking truth from facts. Otherwise, it will not only increase the probability of uncompleted and idle infrastructure projects, but also increase the debt pressure of local governments. The risks involved cannot be ignored.
Therefore, these 26 idle high-speed railway stations are a heavy footnote to the consequences of some kind of blind construction trend, and also a realistic reminder to those cities that are planning to build high-speed railway, they should strengthen scientific decision-making, comprehensively consider the economy and practicality, and be more cautious and less "adventurous" in the construction of high-speed railway stations.
In addition, in promoting economic and social development, local governments also need to get out of the path dependence on large infrastructure construction as soon as possible. At the same time, relevant departments should also follow the scientific principle and strictly control the examination and approval of high-speed railway station settings and line planning.
Such reminders and self-examination are not redundant. As public information shows, the overall number of stations for projects planned and started in recent years, such as high-speed railway along the river, is much higher than that of the "four vertical and four horizontal" high-speed railway project planned and constructed in the early stage. It is worth examining whether there are construction situations that exceed the actual needs, and even whether there will be new cases of idle high-speed railway stations.
Editor/Xu Qiuying
