Remote high-speed rail stations, urban land supply, and the emergence of new economic activities

•The impact of HSR station placement on economic activities within cities was investigated.•Remote HSR stations influence the distance and direction of new land supply and emerging nighttime light.•The alignment between HSR’s impacts on land and light varies across cities.•Remote HSR stations rise the resource misallocation and ghost town risk in population-shrinking cities.•High accessibility and tertiary industry proportions magnify the spillovers of HSR station. This study investigates the influence of high-speed rail (HSR) station placements on urban economic activities within cities. Specifically, we assess their effects on government-driven new land supply and market-driven emerging economic activities. Using data from 2007 to 2017, our analysis encompasses 720 HSR stations across 319 Chinese cities, with a focus on remote stations situated in the peripheral counties. Our findings reveal that remote HSR stations typically function as new city subcenters. They consistently drive the expansion of both land supply and economic activities (distance effect) and draw them toward the quadrant surrounding the station (direction effect). However, the alignment between their impacts on land supply and economic activities varies based on the city characteristics. In cities experiencing population declines, remote HSR stations notably affect land supply but have a negligible influence on economic activities, leading to resource misallocation and an increased risk of ghost towns. Furthermore, better HSR accessibility and higher tertiary industry proportions can magnify the spatial spillover effects of HSR station location on both land supply and economic activities.