The paper explores the economics and politics of megaproject failure in Spain. Taking Barcelona's high-speed station as case study, it demonstrates that this project, rather than a victim of austerity policies, was much more the hostage of a struggle between national-regional-and city-scales, representations and policy narratives. After having introduced the debate on high speed stations promises and disillusions, the argumentation highlights three moments in the project timeline. From early 90's to 2000's, it shows the station's instable position in highspeed network planification. During the 2008-2014 crisis, the project stops because of Madrid and catalonian competing geostrategic perspectives. Since 2014, local stakeholders reaffirm their commitment to complete the station, but fail in its integration within a new trend in the narratives and processes of urban renovation.