Abstract
AbstractThe initial period of construction of the Spanish railway network is often criticized for its radial structure, centered on Madrid. In this article, the authors describe the role of the state during the initial stage of railway network construction and confirm that although the political will to construct a centralist network certainly influenced its morphology, other social and economic criteria were also influential. With regard to the political motives behind the radial network, the authors argue that part of this interest could have come in response to perceived needs to strengthen the presence of the Spanish state throughout its national territory and to promote a process of state-building. Finally, it must be stressed that the central hypothesis of our article is that the radial structure of the network was a natural consequence of the strategic geographical position of the country’s capital and of the distribution of economic activity within Spanish territory. The article proposes two methodological approaches for evaluating the extent to which the radial design of the network was justified, bearing in mind the locations of Spain’s most productive regions. The results of these two exercises suggest that the radial configuration with which the Spanish rail network was originally designed probably arose naturally as a result of the distribution of economic activity within the country and of the relative advantage that this bestowed on certain regions due to their geographic position.
Highlights
The suitability of the predominantly radial morphology of the Spanish railway network, centered on Madrid, which marked the beginning of the process of railway construction in Spain—and has continued more recently with Spain’s high-speed train (AVE)—has been, and continues to be, the object of an intense debate between academics and politicians and amongst public opinion
It is reasonable for us to argue that Spanish railway policy has not been exempt from errors in the past, and that errors continue today, we believe that the criticism leveled at the radiality of the Iberian gauge railway network during the initial process of its construction has tended to be lacking in appropriate qualitative and quantitative arguments
The idea of the state constructing a transport network that would serve its political interests relating to its consolidation of power could be criticized as a criterion for railway policy, it could be that such a structure facilitated the task of introducing, promoting, and monitoring of a series of common policies and regulations for the whole national territory
Summary
The suitability of the predominantly radial morphology of the Spanish railway network, centered on Madrid, which marked the beginning of the process of railway construction in Spain—and has continued more recently with Spain’s high-speed train (AVE)—has been, and continues to be, the object of an intense debate between academics and politicians and amongst public opinion. Even if we accept that the only priority of the state was to connect the most important nuclei to Madrid to strengthen the political presence of the capital within the national territory and to promote its growth, it is not obvious to argue that the resulting radial structure necessarily runs contrary to the economic needs of the country. Those who think it did should provide evidence to support their allegations that for political reasons certain connections received priority over others of greater economic interest. No such quantitative analysis is presented in any of the previously cited articles
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