Assessing spatial planning strategy in high-speed rail station areas in Spain (1992–2018): towards a sustainable model

The expansion of new national high-speed rail (HSR) networks, together with the emergence of a new urban paradigm, requires a reflection on previous experience, enabling the definition of better policy proposals for station-area planning. The HSR network in Spain offers one of the world’s longest trajectories but in order to draw lessons from previous experience an appropriate analytical framework must be established, fulfilling at least three conditions: (a) inclusion of cases from different periods -verifying an evolution or a constant pattern-; (b) basis in quantifiable parameters specific to HSR areas -allowing comparison among cases- and (c) coherence with contemporary planning criteria. With these three premises in mind, this paper builds a methodological framework analyzing parameters related to density, compactness, diversity of uses, public space, centrality and the barrier effect, extracted from the comparative analysis of 12 approved Station-area Plans. The results show a common pattern that reveals a mixed urban model which combines compactness with the creation of large open spaces; as well as a progressive minimization of the barrier effect over the last 25 years. The verification of these results reinforces some hypotheses of the literature, but also introduces new criteria for incorporation into policy proposals for HSR stations.