Page 102 - 360.revista de Alta Velocidad - Nº 6

Ayrault Pérez, Juan

1. Introduction

These pages are dedicated to explain the evolution of an urban space originally located out of
the city walls, how it acquired a central position when railway was implemented and the way
that it has increased its symbolic and cultural character in parallel with the development of the
High Speed railway, highlighting the multiple ways in which the two processes are connected.
In order to avoid repetition of long names, a few acronyms are used. A list at the end of the
article, before the bibliographical references, clarifies the issue.
Some urban references have been simplified. The author has chosen the terms ‘Atocha Station’,
instead of the official denomination ‘Madrid‐Puerta de Atocha station’ and ‘Atocha square’ in
reference to the urban space that no one but the official maps name ‘Glorieta del Emperador
Carlos V’. The two main parts of the station are simply named ‘Commuter station’ and ‘HS
station’ or ‘HS terminal’

2. Railway and the City

Railway appeared in the mid 19th century as a revolutionary mode of transport that changed
dramatically the way people and freight moved. Up to this moment, travel times had not
substantially improved since the moment when Romans established a road network that covered
the whole empire.

Railway stations were originally implemented outside the urban walls. Describing the station as
the city gate is even a cliché, but in fact a deeply based one, as in the first decades of railway
development thousands of new station buildings were located exactly in front of the physical
gates of city walls.

Figure 1: Station located by the city walls. La Rochelle in 1862. Itinéraire de Poitiers à la Rochelle, à Rochefort et à Royan.
Source : Wikipedia.
When railway became the undisputed mass transport mode, the image of the station was the
first impression of the place for the newcomer. This fact has remained unchanged. Railway
operators and infrastructure managers know that stations represent a substantial part of
passengers’ experience, even if they take a tiny part of travel time.
Their locations turned central due to cities’ growth, in many cases fostered by railway itself. In

100 360.revista de alta velocidad