Cross-Border Accessibility and Spatial Effects of China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor under the Background of High-Speed Rail Environment

Under the background of “the Belt and Road” and “China-Mongolia-Russia economic corridor” initiatives, we studied the urban accessibility level and regional spatial effect of the west line and east line of China-Mongolia-Russia economic corridor in the high-speed rail (HSR) environment. The results are as following. (1) The operation of China-Mongolia-Russia HSR will greatly improve the urban accessibility level, which will shorten the whole journey time to two days along China-Mongolia-Russia economic corridor. The regional space-time convergence effect will be very strong in the China-Mongolia-Russia HSR environment. (2) The accessibility level and its improvement degree of the China-Mongolia-Russia east line are stronger than those of the west line. The accessibility level of different countries differs: China > Russia > Mongolia. The accessibility improvement degree of different countries also differs: Mongolia > Russia > China. Spatially, the accessibility improvement degree of the cities, which are located in the middle of the line is stronger than those cities at the beginning and end of the line. (3) Affected by the China-Mongolia-Russia HSR environment, the spatial polarization effect of China-Mongolia-Russia HSR axial belt will be further enhanced. The internal boundary effect of the China-Mongolia-Russia HSR axial belt will disappear. New HSR economic growth poles will occur, promoting the formation of point-axis system. China-Mongolia-Russia cross-border trade creation and transfer effects will be deepened.