Evaluation of large-scale transnational high-speed railway construction priority in the belt and road region.

Highlights • The large-scale transnational HSR construction evaluation problem in the B&R region is studied. • An index of comprehensive cooperation between China and other countries is proposed. • A method for calculating the weighted travel time of all road sections in the B&R region is proposed. • A method for predicting the comprehensive cooperation index of different countries is proposed. • Two indexes are proposed to depict the importance of port cities and road sections in the B&R region. Abstract This study deals with the large-scale transnational high-speed railway construction evaluation problem, which is a major issue in implementing the Belt and Road (B&R) initiative. We proposed a method for the selection of the most urgent need for transnational high-speed railway construction in the B&R region, which was tested on massive experimental data. The results show that 18 sections in the B&R region have priority conditions to build high-speed railways in current situations, which to a great extent coincide with those road sections covered by high-speed railway projects under construction or to be put into construction in the B&R region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]