[ilickpoolalgae]

I'm not sure if it's comparable, but the Japanese Shinkansen had similar issues when it's first built. A lot of the stations didn't go through the existing central stations due to costs and other logistical problems. This is why there are a lot of stations that the Shinkansen goes through that are called "Shin-XXX" (e.g. Shin Osaka). During a period of fast economic growth this isn't a big issue because the areas around these stations quickly become hubs or alternative downtown areas of their own. Now, I don't know if this will happen to CN but it is a somewhat repeatable outcome of building important railroad hubs in newly developed areas.

[Loq]

This is a much older phenomenon, called railway town, and it is so frequent that it has its own Wikipedia page [1]. At smaller scale this also happens in cities where new underground lines are built. It's a well-established way of paying for public transport. See [2] for a discussion.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railway_town

[2] https://pedestrianobservations.com/2017/09/07/meme-weeding-l...

[csomar]

I don't think this is a problem for CN because in China, you can take the subway after getting off the train. It's okay to have the station afar from the center. This is the not case with Laos but I don't think the people planning that really cared.

[paulsutter]

Excellent example. My onetime Japanese distributor was walking distance from Shin-Yokohama station and I would never have guessed the history

>Shin-Yokohama Station opened on 1 October 1964, with the opening of the Tokaido Shinkansen.[4] At the time, the surrounding area was completely rural, and the site was selected as it was the intersection of the Tōkaidō Shinkansen tracks with the existing Yokohama Line

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shin-Yokohama_Station

[evertedsphere]

(for those who might not know, shin 新 = "new")