What is?A vehicle made up of a series of wagons coupled together and towed by a locomotive running on rails.In case you had doubts.Age.This invention arrived in Burgos on October 25, 1860, from Valladolid.You say the train... Yes, and since we're in a supplement called Ways of Living, just like Leño's song, I can't get another great song from the same group entitled El tren out of my head.Do you know him?No. Put it on if you can because it is perfect for the subject we are going to talk about.It starts with a hypnotic guitar riff, drums and bass come in and it all sounds like the rattle of a convoy.Then Rosendo starts, with his badass and defiant voice, and draws the soundscape of what the train has been in this city for decades.And what has been?A constant presence, a wound across the city, an endless ditch.Until four days ago, the roads split Burgos through the urban area, from west to east, lengthwise.It wouldn't be that bad.Imagine the width of an avenue occupied by two roads and the stones that surround them, and all framed by a wall on each side.And so for miles.The set had that gloomy British enclave look, like a seedy Glasgow neighborhood on a gray day.You could see yourself waiting at the level crossing, in the rain, for a freight car with dozens of wagons full of coils, cars or logs to arrive and finish passing.And that just to go home.I know what I'm talking about.Why?I lived for several years in a house on the very first line of the road.Besides, it was precisely a first.Dozens and dozens of trains passed by every day.In summer, with the window open, you couldn't hear the conversations, and when they were large goods the walls vibrated.It was like in those movies where the elevated trains in Brooklyn go past the windows of brick flats.Barriers were lowered and cars had to wait in endless queues.But one gets used to everything.I imagine it in black and white.Well don't believe.The train stopped running in December 2008, in full color.The worst thing is that, in addition to the aforementioned drawbacks, it caused many deaths.People got fed up and cut off the tracks several times, some for days.Fortunately, it is past.Yes, the diversion marked the beginning of the greatest transformation of the city in decades, although it did not reach the planned destination station, due to making a railway grace.What happened?It took a while but the tracks were raised and that area became 'El Bulevar', a kind of gigantic and supposedly avant-garde avenue of 12 kilometers!The name is a bit pompous, but keep in mind that when it was screened we were in the Spain of the rush and the economic growth that seemed to be eternal.Y?I told you: it was in 2008, the beginning of the financial crisis.Let's say that the project caught the change of needles with the wrong foot (another funny train).There was money from the sale of freed-up lots to pay for the move, a great idea, but the real estate bubble burst.The design was entrusted to some brilliant Swiss architects who even proposed a tram.Due to the circumstances, everything was left a little half.What's at the end?He's obviously much better than before, which wasn't difficult.But it has not managed to establish itself as a place of reference.To me they still look like the back of a street, with the same life as those that gave the wall in Berlin;very little commerce has been developed and it is not a place to walk, but rather an inner ring road.It is rarely used by pedestrians and is not inviting either, it lacks a human scale.But it has interesting elements.For example?The urban furniture (bus stops, lampposts...) designed by the Swiss have a fantastic brutalist, almost Soviet touch.The luminaires, which mimic something like giant drops, hang from cables crossed over the road and when the wind rocks them, or whips them, it seems that you are in Transylvania, or its outskirts.Bus stops, of various models, take one to the Belarus of the seventies.I love them.Not everything is bad.But other things yes.The old central station, with a French air, built of stone, brick and black tiles, has ceased to be used.It is a beautiful construction with details such as the inscription "Caminos de Hierro del Norte de España" on the façade, a catchy phrase.A pity that it lost its original function, because you went out and in a kick you were in the Espolón, for example.It was a nice setting for movie farewells, à la Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart.And the new one?It is so far from the center that it could serve as a joint station for Burgos and Logroño;on its platforms it is so cold and the wind blows so much that one seems to be waiting for the train that will take one to Siberian exile.But let's not be negative.I never am.I'm happy for you.On the other hand, the area of ​​the old station is the part that has come to life the most in recent years.Both the terminal and nearby buildings with past railway uses have been transformed into cultural endowments, with green areas and more pleasant spaces.Things have been slow.Everything related to the train, paradoxically, is always slow in this city.What do you mean?Years ago the AVE should have reached Burgos, according to successive unfulfilled promises.And we keep waiting.What platform?Leave it alone.If you want to appear integrated.Put on a bearskin coat and wait for the bus at a stop on the Boulevard reading War and Peace.Never, never, never... Turn left on Boulevard if you're driving.Don't ask questions, it's forbidden.Other websites of the Promecal GroupPROMECAL Burgos Building, Avda. Castilla y León 62-64 09006 Burgos, Spain Tel: 947 26 83 75