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Perspectives of territorial development linked to the future high-performance rail lines in Eastern
Andalusia.

Times theoretically estimated are slightly less than current rail service travel times but future
improvements in the existing rail lines and more efficiency in the services and their connections
have been considered. The weakness of the eastern connections of Jaen can also be observed
due to the limitations of the Linares-Baeza - Moreda rail line if it is not renovated. There
probably won’t be direct rail services between Granada and Jaen if this line is not improved,
as the travel time is double than that by road, and paradoxically Jaen’s airport is the same as
Granada’s.
As has been indicated, another more distant scenario could be considered regarding the
projections of the national infrastructure plan which foresee a complete number of connections.
For this remote scenario around 2050 could be estimated as the completion of the rest of
connections: The littoral rail line Almería-Motril-Málaga-Algeciras, and the inner connections
Granada – Motril and Guadix-Lorca, which will reduce these travel times to Murcia. The
improvement of the line between Linares and Moreda should also be considered.

4. Territorial implications linked to the future High-Performance Rail Lines in
Eastern Andalusia.

4.1 Territorial effects associated to the passenger flows.

With respect to the passenger flows, thanks to the Mediterranean Corridor an extraordinary
increase of passenger transport demand from Almeria towards Catalonia is foreseen (they could
be multiplied by 20) and even more from Murcia and the Valencian Community (which could be
multiplied by more than 300), while the global passenger transport demand in the rest of the
Corridor, including our study area, would be multiplied by 2.5 (INECO, 2011). Nevertheless it is
probable to consider greater increments in the future scenario.

As they have been widely studied in many cases, the main effects associated to the future high-
performance rail lines in Eastern Andalusia are linked to the great travel time reductions which
are gained, but focused around the stations giving a polarized development model.
In the present case these effects will be associated not only with the significant travel time
reductions but also to the emergence of new direct relations between the main close cities
which now are not connected.

With respect to the widespread diversity and dimensions of the territorial effects that need to
be covered, in this paper they will be focused on the spatial implications of the inter-urban
relations at sub-regional scale.
According to other national and foreigner experiences, deeply studied by Prof. J.M. Ureña and
his research group, the spatial implications of the new HSR lines can be summarized “in three
different processes: changes in functional integration of HSR cities, spatial and urban hierarchy
reorganization, and city restructuring” (Ureña et al., 2012, p. 132). Thus the new HSR services
will allow the appearance or consolidation of commuting inter-urban relations in one hour, and
business, often day return, travel in 2 to 3.5 hours´ travel time, as has been recognized (Ureña
et al., 2012, pp. 133-134).
In synthesis, as stated by Ureña et al. (2012, p. 140), the inter-urban territorial implications of
the new HSR lines are: “Increased metropolitan processes at half and hour’s and one hour’s HSR
travel time; re-articulation of medium-sized cities to the system of metropolises; new isolated
transportation poles; and collaboration between small, distant cities”. The first one comprises
two processes: “discontinuous metropolitan expansion at one hour’s HSR travel time”, and
“metropolitan reinforcement at half an hour’s HSR travel time”. In addition “there is evidence
that discontinuous metropolitan expansion is happening in small cities with an HSR station

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