Study on the Evolution and Coupling Coordinated Development of Passenger and Freight Transport Network of New Western Land-Sea Corridor

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The manuscript is interesting due to some research threads. However, it needs some refinement.

I have a note to write the title. Passenger and freight transport are two different types of transport, broken down horizontally. Instead of parenthesis, I suggest a hyphen "and", meaning "... of Passenger and Freight Transport Network ..." or simply without "... Transport Network ...". These two types of transport have completely different specificity and the parenthesis may mislead the reader by suggesting that these two types of transport are subsidiary. A similar remark also applies to the entire text (content).

The first four paragraphs in the introduction require references (confirm similar statements with white/gray literature).

The introduction also lacks a definition of the purpose of the manuscript corresponding to the research problem described and the methods that were used in one sentence. There is also no short description of the structure of the article.

The literature review does not include many sources, but their selection is accurate and up-to-date.

In line 184, reference should be made to the aforementioned statistical yearly references. The link to ArcGis should also be given as a reference.

I have reservations about the R measure used (because there is no mention of distributions, whether the variables are stationary). It should be mentioned somewhere in the text.

The second, quite serious remark concerns the lack of indication of variables (their precise description), description of the data structure and their basic descriptive statistics, and an indication of the units in which they were measured. In other units, the volume or transport performance of passenger transport is presented, and in other units, the volume or transport performance of freight transport. In addition, it has not been specified whether the study on road, rail, or inland waterway transport - as well as the length of the transport network (road, rail, etc.). This information has been omitted, which medically may raise considerable doubts as to the transparency of the study. It is advisable to add this information.

Section 4 raises my considerable doubts as to the arguments, I understand if the authors discussed this issue in more detail in the context of the phenomenon of congestion, but the described interactions must be supported by evidence from the literature. Logistics is a completely different term than transport. In this section, the authors have a lot of conceptual mess. I propose to organize the concepts of logistics and transport. And to deepen the discussion on the issue of congestion and infrastructure capacity.

In reference 16, the title of the journal should be capitalized (Infrastructure planning ...) - lines- 842-843.

Good luck!

Author Response

• I have a note to write the title. Passenger and freight transport are two different types of transport, broken down horizontally. Instead of parenthesis, I suggest a hyphen "and", meaning "... of Passenger and Freight Transport Network ..." or simply without "... Transport Network ...". These two types of transport have completely different specificity and the parenthesis may mislead the reader by suggesting that these two types of transport are subsidiary. A similar remark also applies to the entire text (content).

Response:

Thank you very much for your great comments and suggestions. We quite agree with you on this point. We clearly show the passenger and freight subsystems of the transportation system in Figure 1. We have made changes to the descriptions of passenger and freight transport network, and the entire article has been revised.

• The first four paragraphs in the introduction require references (confirm similar statements with white/gray literature).

Response:

Thank you very much for your detailed suggestions. We added corresponding literature citations to the important documents mentioned in the introduction.

• The introduction also lacks a definition of the purpose of the manuscript corresponding to the research problem described and the methods that were used in one sentence. There is also no short description of the structure of the article.

Response:

Thank you for your suggestion. We have revised the content of the introduction. Lines 99-110 explain the research methods and purposes of the article, and lines 111-118 give a brief description of the structure of the article.

• The literature review does not include many sources, but their selection is accurate and up-to-date.

Response:

Thank you very much for your detailed suggestions. We have added relevant references to lines 184-198 of the literature review, and updated the corresponding references.

• In line 184, reference should be made to the aforementioned statistical yearly references. The link to ArcGis should also be given as a reference.

Response:

Thank you very much for your detailed suggestions. The statistical yearly references is provided in line 230 of the paper, and the reference link to ArcGis is provided in line 233.

• I have reservations about the R measure used (because there is no mention of distributions, whether the variables are stationary). It should be mentioned somewhere in the text.

Response:

Thank you for your suggestion. R represents the correlation strength of passenger and freight transportation between two different cities, gravity has long been one of the most successful empirical models in economics. The lines between the two points in Figure 3 and 4 represent the correlation strength R.

• The second, quite serious remark concerns the lack of indication of variables (their precise description), description of the data structure and their basic descriptive statistics, and an indication of the units in which they were measured. In other units, the volume or transport performance of passenger transport is presented, and in other units, the volume or transport performance of freight transport. In addition, it has not been specified whether the study on road, rail, or inland waterway transport - as well as the length of the transport network (road, rail, etc.). This information has been omitted, which medically may raise considerable doubts as to the transparency of the study. It is advisable to add this information.

Response:

Thank you very much for your detailed suggestions. In 231-233, we supplement the units and ranges of the two types of statistics of passenger and freight.

• Section 4 raises my considerable doubts as to the arguments, I understand if the authors discussed this issue in more detail in the context of the phenomenon of congestion, but the described interactions must be supported by evidence from the literature. Logistics is a completely different term than transport. In this section, the authors have a lot of conceptual mess. I propose to organize the concepts of logistics and transport. And to deepen the discussion on the issue of congestion and infrastructure capacity.

Response:

Thank you for your suggestion. This article mainly focuses on the network connection of passenger transport and freight transport and its coordination effect. We also focus on the network connection. For the concepts of transport and logistics, we have made a framework diagram (Figure 1), which shows our definition of transport system in detail. In this article, we divide the transport system into two subsystems, passenger transport and freight transport. As for the discussion on congestion and infrastructure capacity you mentioned, we are very interested and will consider further research in the next article.

• In reference 16, the title of the journal should be capitalized (Infrastructure planning ...) - lines- 842-843.

Response:

Thank you very much for your detailed suggestion on this section. We modified the title of the journal in the corresponding reference in line 912 of the article.

Reviewer 2 Report

It is not clear if the corridor has been the subject of relevant investments in the reporting period. If so, the authors should evaluate the impacts of these changes.

Author Response

It is not clear if the corridor has been the subject of relevant investments in the reporting period. If so, the authors should evaluate the impacts of these changes.

Response:

Thank you very much for your suggestion. First of all, related investment is not the direct focus of this study. Secondly, the changes caused by this investment, namely the changes in the structure of the passenger and freight networks, have been reflected in the two network correlation diagrams.

Reviewer 3 Report

1. The introduction is a bit confusing. Although it explains the particularity of the research object, that is, the importance of the New Western Corridor, it does not specifically explain the significance of the research topic? Why should we discuss the coupling of passenger and freight flow? What is its significance?

2. The organization of the review part is also unreasonable, it should be discussed closely around the research topic. What research contents do scholars study around passenger and freight flow, what are the current theoretical and practical deficiencies, and what are our innovation points? This paper didn't give a very good explanation.

3. The topic of the article is not focused. Since the research is about the coupling of passenger and freight flows, we should make a detailed explanation of its coupling characteristics on the basis of a systematic understanding of the space-time development of passenger and freight flows, and then make an in-depth analysis of its coupling mechanism.why we analyze the network robustness and optimization of two networks？What is the significance for the research topic？

4. The pictures should be standardized and clear. The analysis of results should not only focus on the data, but also on the economic and social development behind the data.

Author Response

1) The introduction is a bit confusing. Although it explains the particularity of the research object, that is, the importance of the New Western Corridor, it does not specifically explain the significance of the research topic? Why should we discuss the coupling of passenger and freight flow? What is its significance?

Response:

Thank you very much for your suggestion. We have revised the introduction accordingly. In line 179-202 of this paper, we explain why we study the evolution of passenger and freight networks and the coordination between them. Clarifying the law of its network evolution is conducive to exploring the spatial relationship of regional logistics and optimizing its spatial structure. The coordinated development can make full use of idle transport capacity of passenger and freight transport and rationally allocate its resources, which is conducive to the improvement of the efficiency of comprehensive transport network, and also promote the integrated development of regional passenger flow, logistics and economy.

2) The organization of the review part is also unreasonable, it should be discussed closely around the research topic. What research contents do scholars study around passenger and freight flow, what are the current theoretical and practical deficiencies, and what are our innovation points? This paper didn't give a very good explanation.

Response:

We sincerely thank you for your detailed suggestions on this study. In line 184-198 of this paper, we have supplemented the relevant research content of passenger transport and freight transport. Most of the research is only carried out from the single perspective of logistics or passenger flow, and there is a lack of systematic research on the two. The innovation of this study is to combine this two directions and explore the relationship between them from the perspective of coordinated development.

3) The topic of the article is not focused. Since the research is about the coupling of passenger and freight flows, we should make a detailed explanation of its coupling characteristics on the basis of a systematic understanding of the space-time development of passenger and freight flows, and then make an in-depth analysis of its coupling mechanism.why we analyze the network robustness and optimization of two networks？What is the significance for the research topic？

Response:

Thank you very much for your suggestion. Based on the evolution of passenger transport network and freight transport network, this study discusses the coordination between them. The research on network robustness and expansibility is based on the two perspectives of network risk resistance and network growth, and on the basis of coordinated development of passenger transport and freight transport, to provide reference for future regional passenger and freight spatial structure optimization and network risk governance policies. In this way, the coordinated development of the two directions also makes the network development better and the ability to resist risks stronger.

4) The pictures should be standardized and clear. The analysis of results should not only focus on the data, but also on the economic and social development behind the data.

Response:

Thank you very much for such a detailed suggestion for improvement. We have Improved the quality of figures 3 and 4. We searched relevant literature and relevant background information, and finally revised lines 684-689 in Chapter 7 of the paper. In the fifth chapter, we also elaborate the social development reasons of the two kinds of network evolution laws.