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The Cercanías commuter train network hit a record number of passengers in Malaga province in 2024, mostly thanks to the C1 (Malaga-Fuengirola) line together with the C2 (Malaga-Álora) service. This makes the routes the preferred option for travel along the Costa del Sol and in the Guadalhorce Valley for more than 17 million passengers - an unprecedented historical record. What contributes to these high figures is the fact that these services are free of charge for regular users with a Spanish government subsidised season ticket.
The statistics from last year come in the midst of a debate concerning a potential coastal train, which would connect Malaga province and the neighbouring Campo de Gibraltar from one end to the other - from Nerja to Algeciras.
A total of 17,128,000 passengers used the Cercanías services in 2024, although the vast majority of them were regulars on the C1 (Malaga-Fuengirola). According to data from the Ministry of Transport, this represents an increase of 6.6% compared to 2023, which was already recorded as the best year since the railway network's inauguration.
It is even more striking if we take into account the train's capacity to attract passengers in the province: this 6.6% translates into an increase of more than one million passengers (1,061,000) who have taken the train over the last twelve months, compared to 2023. The years before the Covid pandemic are not even close to this record, even though, at the time, the nearly 12 million passengers of 2019 seemed difficult to beat.
It goes without saying that the Malaga province Cercanías service is one of the most profitable in Spain due to its attractiveness, beyond peak hours and the study season, especially among tourists on the Costa del Sol and locals who travel back and forth between Malaga city and Fuengirola. It is also by far the most popular service of this type in Andalucía.
1,061,000
new passengers have boarded the train over the last twelve months, compared to 2023.
In addition to the free season tickets, which will be extended until 30 June, Renfe has highlighted the reliability of the service, with an average punctuality of 96.6% of the trains running both on the coast and in the Guadalhorce valley. According to regular users, this point has improved notably in 2024, considering that it used to be one of the shortcomings of the service in the first years after Covid.
On the other hand, users' complaints now focus on the overcrowding of the carriages, which do not have the necessary capacity to meet growing demands, especially at peak times or in the event of a breakdown that could strike an earlier train of the same line. However, the Ministry of Transport has already started to study the possibility of introducing double-decker trains in the medium term, given that the smaller size of some of the stations does not allow for longer trains. Passengers have also requested that the operator reinforces maintenance services, as there are frequent breakdowns in escalators and lifts, which sometimes take months to be fixed.
As a benefit to the environment, Renfe has estimated that the use of these trains has prevented the circulation of more than 11.4 million vehicles in the metropolitan area of the province in 2024. There are a total of 132 trains running in the Malaga hub every working day: 104 on the C1 and 28 on the C2. The public train operator has also stated that the recent incorporation of a WhatsApp channel has improved the communication with passengers. The aim of the group is to consistently update the status of circulation and possible timetable changes in real time.
This new record in the use of the train in Malaga province has taken place in a context that could not be more opportune, in the midst of the resurgence of the long-running debate on the future coastal train. Currently, the Ministry of Transport is carrying out studies, with the aim of analysing the convenience of a line that could run from Nerja to Algeciras.
96.6%
is the punctuality ratio of Cercanías trains running both on the coast and in the Guadalhorce valley, according to Renfe
The Spanish government has been advancing with the efficiency analyses. The last issue of the BOE (Spain's official state gazette) of 2024 (number 315, 31 December 2024, page 75125) published the tender offer for the drafting of this document, which will serve as a basis for political decision-making. The contract has a base budget of 1.2 million euros and a timeframe of 18 months, although it has been divided into phases, which has become a necessity due to the implications on the medium-term timetable.
Consultancy firms interested in bidding for the lucrative contract will have until 10 February. On 5 March the envelope with the financial offer will be opened. Then, over the following three months the bids will be studied, to choose the winning firm, which will have to start work in June at the latest. This has been established in the "estimated timetable" for the work, in which the ministerial tech team have determined three phases. According to this schedule, the first milestone will occur at the end of Phase I, with the "initial study of alternatives" expected to be revealed in January 2026, one year from now.
This process concerns the route of this new Cercanías line, that is, where and how the the railway tracks from Nerja to Malaga would be built, as well as to Marbella, Estepona and Algeciras. According to the statement that Óscar Puente, the Minister of Transport, made last December, it is expected that this issue should have a clear solution and plan in a year. The initial plan of the ministerial technical team is to follow, whenever possible the A-7 motorway on either side of the road.
The use of public transport has risen by double digits throughout Spain thanks to the discounts for regular passengers, which the government has been applying since September 2022. These offerings have been possible thanks to investments of 3,400 million euros up to last December, of which almost 1,580 million euros have been used to finance regional and local transport discounts.
An average of 405 million journeys per month were recorded in 2024, which includes metro, bus, suburban and medium-distance trains - an increase of 12% compared to 2019, after which the Covid-19 pandemic forced the restriction of mobility. With respect to 2022, demand has increased by 32.8%, which means that, on average, last year there were 100 million more journeys per month on subsidised public transport than in 2022.
The data is from Spain's INE national statistics institute and the figures from January to September have been used to calculate the monthly average.
Since the fare reductions for frequent passengers came into effect in September 2022, there has been a noticeable increase in the use of subsidised transportation modes for daily mobility. This has led to greater travel frequency and a rise in exclusive users, strengthening their overall share.
It can be observed that the modes subsidised by discounts constitute 11.9% of the share in 2022 and that this has further risen to 15.4% in 2023, an increase of 3.5 points. The figure may seem low at first glance, since these are relatively small shares compared to the dominant mode, which is car traffic, but if we analyse this increase in relative terms, the modes with discounts are increasing by 29.2% from one year to the next, while car share drops from 84.1% in 2022 to 79.8% in 2023.
In 2022, the share of remote working and online classes was much greater than in 2024, as the consequences of the pandemic were still very present. Therefore, in addition to the discounts, which aimed to promote the use of public transport with the return to normality, the economy's strong improvement has also influenced their recovery.
The sale of general season tickets and multi-journey tickets for regional and urban services, which benefited from the 50% discounts allowed by the government, grew by 5.6% and 3.8%, respectively, in 2024, compared to 2019. These tickets now account for 54.8% of the total number sold, including fare cards, the share of which, in turn has dropped. The aforementioned types of tickets accounted for a share of 45.4% in 2019, but the growth hasn't changed much since 2022.
Metro use has grown by 12.1%, to 115.5 million passengers on average per month in 2024, and urban buses have registered 165.5 million monthly journeys, 10.8% more than in 2019. Compared to 2022, the bus network has increased by some 43 million journeys (+35%) and the metro - by 27.8 million (+31.7%).
According to the INE data, commuter rail services have recorded an average of 48.26 million journeys per month in 2024, which implies an increase of 4.4%, compared to 2019, and 25.9%, compared to 2022. Renfe's free travel cards for Rodalies (in Catalonia) and Cercanías services, which came into force in September 2022, have favoured a strong increase in demand in the Valencia, Malaga and Bilbao hubs compared to 2019, when mobility was already at record levels.
In the first four months of 2024, 89.9% of passengers used recurrent travel cards, compared to 77.9% in 2019. In Madrid, Seville and Barcelona, the number of journeys made thanks to Renfe's free travel cards exceeds 91.5%, while in Bilbao the figure that reaches 99%.
However, the biggest increases in the use of recurrent season tickets for commuter travel have been recorded in Seville, Malaga and Valencia.
The data include journeys made with travel cards issued by the regional transport consortia that have integrated Cercanías services, which are also free of charge.
Across the Cercanías network, exclusive users accounted for 63% in 2019 and 72.4% in 2023. If we analyse the main metropolitan areas, we can see that Madrid's exclusive users increased from 68.8% in 2019 to 76.9% in 2023, while those in Barcelona grew from 59.5% to 76.4% in the same period.
The percentage of people who occasionally use their car to travel along the Cercanías itinerary has also reduced, from 23% in 2019 to 14.6% in 2022, and then to 11.2% in 2023.
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