International audienceThis paper aims to carry out a comparative review of the high-speed train in Spain and France regarding the socioeconomic impact in medium cities with stations located outside of the urban weave. By now, many projects in Spain are still to be implemented and therefore they are looking for examples and counterexamples in other European countries. The strategies to take advantage of the high-speed services in these cities and their impact are the core of the presentation: successful and mistaken projects and activities such as residential, commercial, sort of companies (R&D, technological, financial, logistics), etc. Which have been the factors to develop economic activities surrounding the high-speed stations? What is n...