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Which way to the city centre? Pedestrian itineraries between High Speed Rail stations and historic
centres. Assessing urban quality and tourist behaviour through GPS tracks in Toledo.

as it happens in Toledo, it is also possible to understand the use of these gates. In this case, we
detected an unpredicted use of the longest itinerary to access the city from the HSR station.
The analysis of the itineraries showed the relevance of the legibility and signing. Also, the
shortest itinerary has been made by linking different preexistent itineraries, usually with
illegible changes of direction. These preexistent itineraries also respond to different periods
and origins, and therefore present different characteristics not only in relation to the private
space (urban morphology, building heights, setbacks, etc.), but also in relation to the public
realm (footpath width, paving, street trees, etc.). On the contrary, the road access has a more
uniform cross section.

The article conclusions help in designing measures to improve the quality of the itinerary and
enhance the tourist experience. In small cities, HSR stations settings have sometimes followed
the pattern of the 19th century stations in the surroundings of the consolidated city, in what
could be called an edge location. However, while historic train stations shaped the urban
structure with the “Station Street”, perpendicular to the tracks and leading directly to the city
center, the edge HSR stations have usually been organized based on a tangential connection,
parallel to the tracks, and conceived for road traffic.

Cities are concerned with getting a HSR station which always offers a good traffic access.
However, it is not so frequent to provide an adequate pedestrian path, in spite of the walkable
distance of edge stations to the city center. Considering the investment of cities in HSR
accommodation and promotion campaigns, to adequately signpost and adjust footpaths for a
comfortable and pleasant walk would be a low-cost measure to enhance the tourist experience.

Central rail stations are important transport nodes but also relevant places in the city, because
they have been able to shape the urban pattern around them. On the contrary, edge HSR stations
are also important transport nodes but their role as singular places in the city is limited by the
bad quality of their pedestrian access. These edge HSR stations have become a hidden city
gate and the station-city pedestrian connection has become the missing link in the intermodal
transport chain.

6. Aknowledgements

This study was supported by the Ministry of Science and Innovation (Grant N CSO2015-63815-R)
and the funds provided by the Department of Civil Engineering and the Department of Geography
and Land Planning in the University of Castilla La Mancha (UCLM).

7. References

• Auphan, E., 1992. Les gares TGV régionales: un exemple de contre-aménagement du
territoire. Hommes et Terres du Nord, Issue 1, pp. 14-20.
• Bazin, S. y otros, 2011. High-speed rail service and local economic development: A review
of the literature. Recherche Transports Securite , 27(3), pp. 215-238.
• Bellet, C., Alonso, P. & Gutiérrez, A., 2012. The High-Speed Rail in Spanish Cities: Urban
Integration and Local Strategies for socio-economic development. En: J. M. Ureña, ed.
Territorial implications of High Speed Rail. A Spanish perspective. s.l.:Ashgate, pp. 163-
196.
• Bertolini, L. & Spit, T., 1998. Cities on rails. The redevelopment of railway station areas.
London: E&FN Spoon.

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