The impact of intercity railways on service industry agglomeration in three great urban agglomeration of China

In this paper, we explore the impact of intercity railways on urban service agglomeration with a difference-indifference model. The yearly data of 48 cities is collected from 2010-2021 in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration, the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration, and the Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration. It was found that the intercity railways openings promoted the service industry agglomeration in cities along the railways routes and had heterogeneous impact on different service industry. The intercity railways had a better effect on the agglomeration of service industries in core cities than in non-core cities.