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High-speed rail and urban development in Spain from 1992 to 2016

To increase the use of new infrastructure, ADIF improved services by “average distance
trains”. These are services provided to cities relatively close to each other. In these cases,
the average speed of travel is about 200 km/h, lower than in long distance services.

Table 2. Evolution of passengers by HSR in Spain (millions).
Origin: Ministerio de Fomento (Spain) and RENFE-OPERADORA.

Figure 1. Network High-speed railway in Spain in 2015. Origin: ADIF.

Today, 25 years after start the HSR services, is possible to analyze the territorial impacts
made by this new infrastructure, more specifically on the economic development of cities and
regions that have this new transport service.

As de Rus (2015) reminds us, infrastructures are a necessary condition for economic development
but not sufficient. Besides, he reminds us that the productivity increases with the investment
in public capital. However, the Law of Decreasing Returns is also applicable in this field. So the
effect of the additional investments being lower when the network presents a more advanced
state as has been demonstrated in the Spanish case (Reig Martínez et al, 2007).
It is now possible to contrast these approaches once again. In fact, the new services of HSR are
a comparative economic advantage with respect to cities or regions that do not have them.

International Congress on High-speed Rail: Technologies and Long Term Impacts - Ciudad Real (Spain) - 25th anniversary Madrid-Sevilla corridor 241