Mayor of Costa del Sol town estimates cost of restarting tram service at 15 million euros

Eugenio Cabezas

Vélez-Málaga

Friday, 4 April 2025, 18:47

The Vélez-Málaga tramway - the first modern tramway to operate in the Andalucía region of southern Span - has been out of service for 13 years. This is more years than it was operational since its launch in 2006. Despite the significant investment of more than 40 million euros that were put into its inauguration, the service was halted in 2012. However, for a year now, the town hall has been promising to run a survey among residents and assess its re-opening.

The main stumbling block, according to mayor Jesús Lupiáñez, is the lack of enough municipal sources for the investment of such an operation. However, the municipal leader has assured that he still plans to carry out the survey. Spain's central government has given the municipal authority a year to justify the 3.7-million-euro subsidy from European funds, allocated for the reactivation of the tramway.

"According to technicians, we are talking about 15 million euros to set up something that would not entirely solve our transport issues. We are trying to update the whole transport service, because the bus service has become a bit obsolete in terms of improvements in accessibility and proximity," said Lupiáñez.

Technicians have also evaluated the deteriorated state of the tramway system, which would need a lot of development.

Regarding possible alternatives, Lupiáñez said that he has not fully ruled out the possibility of creating a BRT system of electric buses that would use the tram platforms, without the catenaries. The main issue with buses is that they pass through the town's main roads, contributing to further saturation and traffic jams.

"We don't have specialised roads like Seville," said the mayor, highlighting that the age of buses in the municipality is not the problem, as there are already two new vehicles and three expected in the summer.

The mayor has expressed his frustration with the Junta's delay in integrating Vélez-Málaga into the transport consortium of Malaga's metropolitan area. Lupiáñez has stated that "it makes no sense that Antequera has entered, even though it is located much further from Malaga than Vélez", with much less people travelling to the city. "I have to defend the interests of my citizens," said the mayor, promising to maintain the demand.