Town halls on the eastern stretch of the Costa del Sol determined not to miss the train

The town halls of the Axarquía on the eastern stretch of the Costa del Sol’s will be present at the big meeting scheduled for 17 July to discuss the extension of Malaga's Cercanías coastal train service, which currently only goes as far as Fuengirola.

The meeting will be the first in recent history in which Spain’s central government, the Junta de Andalucía and the town halls will discuss the possibility of extending the coastal train, among other projects and improvements for transport in Malaga.

"We are looking forward to expanding the number of municipalities that can attend the meeting, as the Junta de Andalucía has proposed," said the secretary of state for transport, José Antonio Santano, who will chair the meeting. "In short, it is in line with what we are proposing: to open a debate on integral mobility as a whole along this corridor, beyond a specific railway project that can connect Malaga and Marbella," he added.

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The invitation was extended to the Axarquía’s mayors after they all voiced their anger and frustration at not being on the initial invitation list. Mayor of Rincón de la Victoria, Francisco Salado was on the guest list as the president of the provincial authority, the Diputación de Málaga.

However, speaking in his role as mayor of the Axarquía town nearest to Malaga city Salado said, "Rincón is part of the metropolitan area of Malaga and thousands of its residents work or study in the city on a daily basis. This problem concerns us as much as the rest of the municipalities. The Axarquía must be part of this railway planning",

In view of the absence of Vélez-Málaga from the guest list, its mayor, Jesús Lupiáñez, also showed his anger: "It really annoys me, one thing is to phase the works, which seems reasonable to me, obviously it has to reach Marbella before Nerja; but from Vélez-Málaga we have always been saying that we do not want to be left behind in this train".

José Alberto Armijo, mayor of Nerja, agreed: "If we talk about mobility on the Costa del Sol, we must talk about what happens from Nerja to Manilva, so all mayors should be summoned to the meeting with the ministry, to convey their concerns. It is important that the Ministry attends to the whole of the Costa del Sol.”

Mayor of Torrox, Óscar Medina, described it as "an absolute lack of respect, loyalty and empathy" that the five municipalities of the eastern Costa del Sol were not invited. "We are the same as the other Costa del Sol”.

After the invitation was extended, Santano said, “We want to analyse mobility, the critical points and seek answers to the needs from the competences of each of the administrations. We are all aware that there will be different levels of response: with short-term initiatives, but also medium and long-term ones, and that is what we are going to work on.”

He added, "We are working to open a debate on integral mobility, beyond a specific railway project that can connect the cities of Malaga and Marbella," added the sources. "This ministry wants to show its firm commitment to work on short-term initiatives, but also on medium and long-term ones". This is the reason why the municipalities of the eastern Costa del Sol have been included in the meeting, at the request of the Andalusian government.

The meeting will be attended by the minister for development, Rocío Díaz; Patricia Navarro from the Junta de Andalucía; the president of the provincial authority the Diputación de Málaga, Francis Salado and the mayors of Malaga city, Torremolinos, Benalmádena, Fuengirola, Mijas, Marbella, Estepona, Rincón de la Victoria, Vélez-Málaga, Algarrobo, Torrox, Nerja, Casares and Manilva. In addition the mayors of San Roque, La Línea de la Concepción, Los Barrios and Algeciras from the province of Cadiz will also attend.