The Shanghai–Kunming high-speed railway spans the eastern, central, and western regions of China and is an important "horizontal" in the "eight vertical and eight horizontal" railway network of China. This paper estimates the direct impact of opening a high-speed railway on the spatial patterns of regional economic development along the route by integrating GIS technology, spatial panel data models, and the entropy method. The results show that the high-speed railway can significantly increase the economic aggregate and urbanization rates along the route and promote the upgrading of industrial structures, but it has a limited effect on the economic growth rate, showing a weak trend. In terms of spatial patterns, the high-speed railway significantly improves regional accessibility, the strength of economic ties, and economic potential along the route. The regional economy is characterized by weak spatial agglomeration and presents a trend of balanced development. In general, although the economic effect of HSR for the economically lagged regions is smaller in the short term than that in the economically and less economically developed regions, the high-speed railway has the greatest impact on regional economic development and spatial patterns in economically backward areas, thus the economically backward regions have a greater posterior advantage, which is conducive to balancing regional economies and narrowing regional differences.

沪昆高铁横跨我国东、中、西部地区，是我国“八纵八横”铁路网中的重要“横”。本文综合运用GIS技术、空间面板数据模型和熵权法，测算了高铁开通对沿线区域经济发展空间格局的直接影响。结果表明，高铁建设能够显着提高沿线经济总量和城镇化率，促进产业结构升级，但对经济增长速度影响有限，呈弱势态势。从空间格局来看，高铁显着提升了区域可达性、经济联系强度、以及沿线的经济潜力。区域经济空间集聚弱，呈现均衡发展态势。总体来看，虽然高铁对经济落后地区的经济效应在短期内小于经济发达地区和欠发达地区，但高铁对经济落后地区的区域经济发展和空间格局影响最大。地区，从而使经济落后地区具有更大的后发优势，有利于平衡地区经济，缩小地区差异。