The integration of a high-speed train station in Valencia City

Abstract

Spain is a country with a large high-speed rail network (HSR or AVE by its initials in Spanish). Most of this railway network was built between 2000 and 2007. Network deployment involves addressing many issues, particularly station localization. The traditional railway network in Spain has a different track gauge to that in the rest of Europe so historical stations do not always serve the high-speed network. In 2000, the first proposal for the railway network of Valencia was published. The authors research team realized two studies on the metropolitan railway network and better station localization in 2002 and 2006. In particular, these studies proposed an intermodal station in an airport to integrate travel flights and travel high-speed train. Between 2008 and 2010, a new provisional high-speed railway station in Valencia was built: Joaquin Sorolla Station. This paper analyses the initial proposal, the actual situation and trends after 2006 on airport–railway station relations in other cities, such as Madrid or Barcelona.