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It didn’t happen in time for last year’s August fair, nor for Christmas... but now it’s third lucky and just in time for the expected bumper crowds at EasterIgnacio Lillo
Malaga
Monday, 20 March 2023
Monday, 27 March, 2023. Just a few days before Holy Week, which starts on 2 April. As reported by SUR in February, and now officially confirmed, this is the date finally agreed by the Junta de Andalucía’s Ministry of Development and the concessionary company for the Malaga Metro to reach the two stops located in the city centre: Guadalmedina, next to El Corte Inglés; and Atarazanas, in the Alameda Principal.
It didn’t happen in time for the August fair, nor for Christmas... but now it’s third lucky.
This historic milestone will be hit some 14 years after the start of the work in Callejones del Perchel and Avenida de Andalucía; and nine since the partial inauguration of lines 1 and 2, connected at the interchange next to the María Zambrano railway station.
The president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juanma Moreno, together with the region's Minister of Development, Marifrán Carazo, will be in charge of officially inaugurating the section that will take Metro passengers into the area where most of the social, work and cultural life of the people of Malaga takes place.
The opening is provisionally scheduled for the afternoon, since in the morning the Junta’s president will be at an event in Cadiz that is being attended Spain's King Felipe VI.
For Carazo, it will mean fulfilling the task of accelerating and completing the work on the Malaga metro to the city centre handed to him by Morenoand will be one of his last acts since he will leave the Ministry shortly afterwards to focus on his candidacy for the Mayor of Granada.
Then, as of Tuesday, 28 March, the possibility opens up for any resident of the three most populated districts of Malaga city, in the western zone, can directly access the centre from their neighbourhood.
Depending on the stop where you get on, the journeys will take between 10 and 20 minutes; and at a very low price due to the discounts from central and regional governments for public transport. Services will run every six minutes during rush hour and with proven reliability and punctuality, mainly due to the fact that 80 per of the route is underground and does not have to coexist with road traffic.
The theoretical population served is some 230,000 inhabitants, with 117,000 in the Carretera de Cádiz district; 88,000 in Cruz del Humilladero and 33,000 in Teatinos, especially those who have a stop less than 500 metres from their front door, which is the majority. Hence, the most conservative estimates predict the doubling of passengers from the best year prior to the pandemic, going from seven to 14 million; although other estimates predict that in the medium term the impact will be even greater.
When the network extends to the hospital area where the new regional facility will be, together with the Civil and Materno, this figure is expected to triple, up to some 22.6 million users.
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