New transport technologies and discontinuous metropolization: high speed train in Segovia

Abstract

The high speed train (HST) was initially developed with the aim of establishing more contacts between relatively distant, large urban centre, but its introduction, the characteristics of the services established, and its use of infrastructure have given rise to new functions. Today, the HST performs a number of new territorial functions: structuring large and medium-sized cities within a given region (regional function) and structuring discontinuous metropolitan environments (metropolitan function). This metropolitan function is easily appreciated in the dynamics of the passenger shuttle services that run between the cities of Toledo, Ciudad Real, Segovia-Guiomar and Madrid. These cities are now connected to the central metropolis in Spain in less than one hour. In the text, we use the case study of Segovia to analyse how the new territorial reality of the discontinuous metropolis has gradually developed as a result of the process of space-time contraction caused by high speed train.