Page 247 - 360.revista de Alta Velocidad - Nº 6

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

As you can see, only the city of Ciudad Real has an IC that stands out above the rest. Surprisingly
Madrid and Sevilla have a very low IC over the period and decreasing from about 2011. Their IC
trends are less than general dynamic for all cities, both those with HSR services and those who
do not. In any case, the city of Puertollano has a decreasing trend of the index, despite being
located very close to Ciudad Real.
In two last years, 2014-2015, Madrid changes the trend according to general evolution of all
cities with HSR services and increase the IC. By contrast, Sevilla continues decreasing its CI.
Sevilla increase its IC between 1991 and 2002. From the year 2002, its IC has been steadily
decreasing.
Maybe, in the case of Ciudad Real, this city joins the metropolitan area of Madrid because new
HSR services allows commuters travels. By contrast, Sevilla shows that new infrastructures are
necessary but not sufficient condition to economic development.

Table 5. Population Growth Index of cities that started HSR services in 1992.

Table 6 shows the evolution of IC of Guadalajara, Calatayud, Zaragoza, Lleida, Tardienta and
Huesca cities when HSR services started in 2004. This table shows the case of Guadalajara
as a case similar to Ciudad Real. From 2004, the growth of IC of Guadalajara is very high.
Curiously, this is a special case because HSR station of Guadalajara is very far of Guadalajara
city and most of the rail travel between Guadalajara and Madrid is done by conventional
train, not by HSR services. Again, the most probable cause of this growth is the integration
of Guadalajara in the Metropolitan Area of Madrid.

The case of Lleida is similar. The increase of IC of Lleida is greater than cities with HSR
services from about 2008, when started HSR connection with Barcelona. Therefore, it is
possible to understand that Lleida joins to the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona about this
date. Maybe it is also the same case of Huesca with respect to Zaragoza. Nevertheless, the
city of Calatayud, located near to Zaragoza, has an erratic evolution.

Tardienta is a special case because of is a city with a very low population (about 1.000
inhabitants) and HSR station built for other reasons.

International Congress on High-speed Rail: Technologies and Long Term Impacts - Ciudad Real (Spain) - 25th anniversary Madrid-Sevilla corridor 245