New Metropolitan Processes of Change Brought about by High Speed Trains

Abstract

The paper centers upon the novel role of High Speed Trains (HST) when stations are located in small cities
close to a metropolitan area and is thus a study in depth of small cities that are already partially or totally
integrated within metropolitan processes, classifying them according to their placement in the HST network.
The territorial opportunities opened up by HST, the new role of this infrastructure and the decision making
as to these cities turning upon their HST connections are examined. Ten European case studies which respond
to a previously established classifi cation have been selected for this. The analysis made has shown how these
small city stations at around 100km from metropolitan centers, have begun to mark a third type of HST in
contrast with the fi rst or that connecting large cities separated by between 400 and 600km, and the second
that covered those connecting small cities to large ones at around 200km away. Two different kinds of stations
have been shown up by the study and this in terms of the distance of the minor to the major population
centre: metropolitan stations, as an alternative to the traditional metropolitan central station, and stations
on the periphery of the metropolitan area that allow for the metropolitan integration of these cities.