Page 129 - 360.revista de Alta Velocidad - Nº 6

South Madrid and High Speed. An example of symbiosis

Figure 60: Tropical garden. Source: Adif.

Atocha regularly appears in the international
press as one of the most spectacular stations
in the world. It is curious that the feature that
draws more attention once and again is the
tropical garden, an element that was not part
of the original refurbishment project.
Tobias Buck, correspondent in Madrid for
Financial Times, qualifies Atocha as ‘splendid’
in a recent article in which he summarizes the
best of his Madrid experiences after four and a
half years in office.
Another article in Asahi Shinbun, one of the
most read newspapers in the world, highlighted
in November 2016 the condition of Atocha as
the city gate and its proximity to the top class Figure 64:
museums. Article about Atocha station in Asahi Shinbun,
November 2016. Source:
Lisa Abend, correspondent in Spain for NY Times
for many years, described her first impression of http://globe.asahi.com/station/2016110400014.html
the station when she arrived as a 19 years old
student, and how years later the whole building
was wholly transformed and provided her very different sensations, and how little by little it
became a familiar space. She wrote it in an emotional article on the occasion of the savage
terrorist attack of March 4th 2004.
Unfortunately, some memories refer to that terrible attack, that thirteen years later still bring
some madrileños to tears. However, they evoke too the wave of sympathy and solidarity that
we experienced and shared in those dreadful days.

International Congress on High-speed Rail: Technologies and Long Term Impacts - Ciudad Real (Spain) - 25th anniversary Madrid-Sevilla corridor 127