The study comprehensively utilizes China's high?speed rail data， China's city data， industrial enterprise data and customs data from 2006 to 2013 to investigate the impact of the opening of high?speed rail on the quality of firms’ export products in peripheral cities from the perspective of enterprise productivity heterogeneity. It has been found that low?productivity firms obtain higher quality enhancement effects from high?speed rail， while high?productivity firms receive smaller effects and even reduce their export product quality. There are significant moderating effects on firm productivity in private firms in peripheral cities， foreign?funded firms， technology?intensive industries， resource?intensive industries， low?industry agglomeration areas， and peripheral cities in eastern region. The opening of high?speed rail significantly reduces the proportion of high?skilled personnel in high?productivity enterprises， and brings a talent siphoning effect to high?productivity firms in outlying cities. Accordingly， the siphoning effect brought by it can be alleviated by optimizing the business environment for private enterprises， upgrading the talent policy， and cultivating the clustering of regional characteristic industries in peripheral cities.