Delete
New buses, part of the 100% electric fleet for Malaga's EMT bus company. Marilú Báez
Public transport

Outlying towns support city mayor's plan to extend Malaga bus network

Alhaurín de la Torre and Rincón de la Victoria already have plans for park-and-ride locations and the Junta de Andalucía has agreed to carry out a technical study of this initiative

Ignacio Lillo

Malaga

Thursday, 12 June 2025, 19:20

There have been positive reactions to the proposal expressed again on Tuesday by Malaga city's mayor, Francisco de la Torre, to link the capital of the Costa del Sol and towns of the greater Malaga area with EMT buses. As the civic leader said, the first phase would have buses reaching Rincón de la Victoria and Alhaurín de la Torre because they do not have a Cercanías local commuter train service, as do Torremolinos and Cártama. Both municipalities have already shown their full support for the initiative and have even planned park-and-ride facilities and interchange sites where the buses could arrive.

Now, the regional ministry for public works in Andalucía (Fomento) has agreed to the technical study of this initiative. "The Junta is open to discussing coordinated plans made between the travel consortium and EMT. Anything that improves public transport will find us ready to talk," said a spokesperson for Fomento on Wednesday. "We have held technical meetings on the possibility of coordinating urban and inter-urban services. All of this will be analysed through demand studies and economic assessment. The criteria of the technical experts will always prevail."

According to these sources, the Junta "always strives for collaboration. For example, in October we achieved the integration of the Cercanías train fare system into the Consorcio card that, in practice, means considerable savings for train users. And this was the result of dialogue and understanding between governing bodies." Not surprisingly, 166,000 Cercanías passengers have used it in the first three months of 2025.

"The Junta is open to discussing coordinated plans made between the Consorcio and EMT. Anything that improves public transport will find us ready to talk"

Spokesperson

Public works ministry at the Junta de Andalucía

Answering media questions on Wednesday, De la Torre did not elaborate further on the matter and once again stressed that the ball is in the regional government's court as the decision-making authority. "It is a regional issue, it is up to the Spanish regions to propose interurban public transport at metropolitan level, we are fully prepared to collaborate in whatever is necessary", he restated, adding: "There is a demand from some surrounding municipalities, but the response is up to the Junta de Andalucía, which will be reflecting on it and seeing how it can complement the Consorcio."

For their part, the Rincón and Alhaurín town halls are looking favourably on this proposal, which has also been mentioned in the latest SUR 'Rumbo' forums held in both municipalities, as well as the park-and-ride facilities for the public transport interchanges. In Alhaurín it would be in Santa Clara-Tabico, while in Rincón it would be on a large plot of land next to Arroyo Totalán, in the vicinity of the cement factory and shopping centre.

Park-and-ride

"Anything that improves mobility in the metropolitan area is fine with me. In Rincón de la Victoria we have been in talks with Malaga city hall and the EMT for some time," said Rincón's mayor, Francis Salado. In fact, Rincón town hall is working on the construction of a large interchange on a plot of land next to the Totalán waterway, something that "would notably improve communications between the two municipalities and the whole of La Axarquía." "The collaboration of the administrations to improve public transport with the EMT and the Consortium, is positive and necessary," said Salado.

As for Alhaurín de la Torre's mayor, Joaquín Villanova, he not only supports it, but he also claims credit for the initial proposal, an idea that he presented to Malaga council's mobility department almost two years ago. He added that he has also discussed it on several occasions with the Junta's delegate, Patricia Navarro, "in order for the Junta de Andalucía to pick up the baton with the Consorcio so that, just as it has agreements with the [Malaga] metro and Renfe, it can do the same with the EMT and Alhaurín de la Torre, which is within the consortium."

"We are fully prepared to collaborate in whatever is necessary, there is demand from some surrounding municipalities, but the response is up to the Junta"

Francisco de la Torre

Mayor of Malaga city

Villanova's proposal involves the creation of an interchange in the Santa Clara urbanisation, with a large bus stop with capacity for up to three buses, which would connect with an internal circular line in his municipality. Additionally, there will be a large park-and-ride facility with initial capacity for 400 cars, although this could be increased to 1,000. In this way, there could be an EMT bus to Malaga city centre at least every 15 minutes, which would greatly alleviate the heavy traffic jams that occur at rush hour in and out of the town.

"Anything that improves mobility in the metropolitan area is fine with me. In Rincón we have been in talks with Malaga city hall and the EMT for some time"

Francisco Salado

Mayor of Rincón de la Victoria

However, the socialist spokesperson in Malaga city council, Daniel Pérez, described the proposal as a "random idea": "Before discussing this, we need to improve the EMT in the city. There are many complaints calling for more frequent services and attention given to urban buses. Besides, that's what the transport consortium is for, of which the mayor himself is vice-president. What De la Torre is doing is opening a debate over a new idea."

A new transport authority?

The notion that the buses of the public company managed by Miguel Ruiz could provide a service to other municipalities was previously announced by the councillor for mobility, Trinidad Hernández, during a full meeting of the relevant committee. Not surprisingly, the EMT's positive results are backed up by the record number of passengers it reached last year, exceeding 50 million for the first time. Meanwhile, intercity buses remained at just over 10 million passengers in the wider metropolitan area.

"We proposed it to Malaga city's mobility department. Just as it has agreements with the metro and Renfe, it could have agreements with the EMT and Alhaurín de la Torre, which is part of the consortium"

Joaquín Villanova

Mayor of Alhaurín de la Torre

Malaga also wants to link this proposal to the formation of a metropolitan transport authority along the lines of those that exist in Barcelona and Valencia. On paper, this would clash with the functioning of the current metropolitan area transport consortium for Malaga. However, the city council's mobility department explained to SUR that it would go further in terms of responsibilities and scope. At the moment it is a set of consortium services with public and private operators and a proportional representation of the governing bodies, including the provincial authority (Diputación de Malaga). Currently, there is also fare coordination such as the green card that allows use of the metro, Cercanías train, EMT and intercity buses.

"Before talking about this, the EMT must be improved in the city. There are many complaints calling for more frequent services and attention given to urban buses"

Dani Pérez

Socialist spokesperson in Malaga city council

Another key aspect is that the new concessions map of intercity lines is being subjected to an in-depth study for its redesign. This is a major contract being promoted by the Junta's ministry for public works, but it will take five years. At least the issue of expired concessions, which created great legal uncertainty for operators, was recently resolved. The aim is to conduct an in-depth analysis of lines, needs and passenger demand in order to configure a transport system that responds to the new challenges of metropolitan mobility.

The investment exceeds two million euros and includes an analysis of the current network and operating plans for future lines. All lines currently operating in the area will be thoroughly scrutinised. It will be the time to look at those buses that sometimes run full and no longer pick up passengers, unprofitable lines, those that can operate on demand, those that do not have competitive journey times due to the high number of stops, those with limited frequencies and short schedules. In short, a comprehensive audit of intercity bus transport. The conclusions will make it possible to draw up a map of concessions that truly meets user needs.

Esta funcionalidad es exclusiva para registrados.

Reporta un error en esta noticia

* Campos obligatorios

surinenglish Outlying towns support city mayor's plan to extend Malaga bus network

Outlying towns support city mayor's plan to extend Malaga bus network
logo

Debido a un error no hemos podido dar de alta tu suscripción.

Por favor, ponte en contacto con Atención al Cliente.

logo

¡Bienvenido a SURINENGLISH!

logo

Tu suscripción con Google se ha realizado correctamente, pero ya tenías otra suscripción activa en SURINENGLISH.

Déjanos tus datos y nos pondremos en contacto contigo para analizar tu caso

logo

¡Tu suscripción con Google se ha realizado correctamente!

La compra se ha asociado al siguiente email