Malaga metro makes getting off at El Corte Inglés compulsory to avoid crowding at most central station during Holy Week

Ignacio Lillo

Malaga

Thursday, 17 April 2025, 06:16 | Updated 10:07h.

The images of crowds of passengers at Malaga's metro facilities that have been circulating on social media since the start of the Holy Week have prompted the National Police to recommend a strategy that would ensure less saturation over the next few days. The most central Atarazanas station, nearest to Calle Larios, will only be used as a point of departure between 5pm and midnight until Good Friday. Therefore, everybody who wants to visit the city and watch the processions will have to get off at the previous station - Gudalmedina, next to the El Corte Inglés department store.

The same approach was taken when the station first opened in 2023. Although Atarazanas station is in the most central location in Malaga's metro network, its size cannot handle the large number of passengers during this holiday.

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On the contrary, Guadalmedina is much more capable of accommodating a higher volume, which is why it will be used for the arrivals at the old town during the above-mentioned time frame. The good thing is that the two stations are located only 600 metres from each other.

With this decision, the Metro de Málaga company and the Junta's regional ministry of public works have responded to the National Police's recommendation following the dissemination of images that show a significant increase in the number of passengers at the station and on the trains. However, the Junta and the city council have denied that there was a state of great saturation at the metro the past couple of days - the start of the Holy Week.

On Holy Monday, National Police officers took part in the surveillance control and "did not raise any objections". The alarm was raised by the representatives of the PSOE socialist party on the city council, who compared the situation witnessed in the videos to a state of "collapse".

"This high volume and hourly concentration of traffic, typical of the Holy Week, caused some crowding on platforms and trains, although there was never a situation of collapse," said the regional ministry of public works. "The service worked without technical incidents and fulfilled the objective of moving more than 100,000 users in a single day." The number of passengers recorded on Monday (113,880) is more than double the daily average of more than 50,000 passengers/day, which reflects the exceptional nature of this holiday.

"The special operation planned for these days of high demand is granted an increase in transport capacity (total fleet of trains available), extended timetables and more competitive frequencies, as well as maximum surveillance, increase in service staff and endorsement of traffic monitoring."