Eleven towns on western strip of Costa del Sol order study into financing of sustainable travel options along the coast

The Mancomunidad de Municipios de la Costa del Sol is looking to attract private investment for proposals including a hybrid overground train/metro system, maritime connections and freeing up the A-7 motorway

María Albarral

Marbella

Monday, 8 January 2024, 17:57

Estepona, Marbella and Benalmádena are among the five municipalities with the highest population growth in Spain, which highlights the transport problem on the Costa del Sol. The existing infrastructure can no longer support the growth in population and the solutions need to be long term.

There are a number of sustainable transport options that the various interested parties have put on the table including the Mancomunidad de Municipios de la Costa del Sol (the public consortium offering shared services to eleven municipalities on the western stretch of Malaga province) which is pushing for private investment. The group of local authorities has included 30,000 euros into its 2024 budget to study the options that would be most attractive to investors.

"Transport has to be attractive for private initiatives to be able to implement it. We believe that it is a solution because the others that have been proposed are very costly, which makes it difficult to implement", said the president of the Mancomunidad, Manuel Cardeña, following a recent budget meeting. He stressed that "solutions are needed now".

Train and metro

The Mancomunidad's intention, according to Cardeña, is to be able to present this initiative in the first half of this year. "We are talking about a hybrid between a train and an overground metro, being a sustainable and environmentally friendly electric transport that is already used in other parts of Europe,” he said.

A further two proposals include boats and the freeing up of the A-7 motorway. "We continue to work on the maritime connection. We are studying the legislation to improve access to the ports and following an initial study the figures we have had from the maritime sector look good,” Cardeña said.

The president of the Mancomunidad also referred to freeing up the A-7 motorway as one of the solutions to the problem. "The Spanish government should, at the very least, copy what they do at Las Pedrizas toll road in Malaga, that from midnight all the heavy lorries can pass free-of-charge, and relieve some of the pressure on the A-7", he said.

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