The project to introduce high-speed rail in Zaragoza coincided with the drafting of a number of strategic and territorial planning documents. In all of these documents, the high-speed train was seen as a key instrument for the urban planning and functional transformation of the city. In this article, we explain how the plans and projects that were supposed to determine the future of the metropolitan area in the 21st century were developed and the role that the new train was to play in them. The onset of the economic crisis frustrated many of the ambitious projects that were associated with the arrival of high-speed rail in the city.