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At the start of the 21st century, Malaga laid the foundations for a true rail revolution. The major milestones came with the Cordoba-Malaga AVE (high-speed train), the laying of a second track on 65% of the Malaga-Fuengirola Cercanías line and the commissioning of two Malaga metro lines.
However, the high-speed lines from Malaga to Seville and Granada remain incomplete, although progress is being made; work on the Bobadilla-Ronda-Antequera high performance freight line is gradually gathering pace; but the Costa train to Marbella is still on the sidelines, as are the connections with the TechPark, El Palo and Rincón de la Victoria; the possibility of new local services such as the Málaga-Antequera line, or the rail tunnel into Malaga Port. The direct Malaga-Seville AVE is no more than a mere promise of a project that, in its day, did actually get off the ground.
In other words, out of the ten important rail projects for the province of Malaga, six are at a standstill. Worse still, in most cases no decision has been made.
State
Undefined/Previous studies
Abandoned projects
Projects awarded
In progress
Finished
Type
High performance/Goods
Cercanías
Metro
AVE
CÓRDOBA
Almodóvar del Río
Baipás Málaga-Sevilla
AVE Málaga-Granada
SEVILLA
Cercanías a
Antequera
AVE directo
Málaga-Sevilla
Conexión con El Palo
y Rincón de la Victoria
Bobadilla
Bobadilla-
Ronda-Algeciras
Antequera
MÁLAGA
Metro
al Civil
Conexión con el
Málaga TechPark
Marbella
Soterramiento del
ferrocarril del Puerto
Tren de
la Costa
Fuente: Elaboración propia
E. HINOJOSA
State
Undefined/Previous studies
Abandoned projects
Projects awarded
In progress
Finished
Type
High performance/Goods
Cercanías
Metro
AVE
CÓRDOBA
Baipás Málaga-Sevilla
Almodóvar del Río
AVE Málaga-Granada
SEVILLA
AVE directo
Málaga-Sevilla
Cercanías a
Antequera
Bobadilla
Bobadilla-
Ronda-Algeciras
Antequera
MÁLAGA
Metro al Civil
Conexión con el
Málaga TechPark
Conexión con El Palo
y Rincón de la Victoria
Marbella
Soterramiento del
ferrocarril del Puerto
Tren de
la Costa
Fuente: Elaboración propia
E. HINOJOSA
Type
State
High performance/Goods
Undefined/Previous studies
Abandoned projects
Cercanías
Projects awarded
Metro
In progress
AVE
Finished
CÓRDOBA
Baipás Málaga-Sevilla
Almodóvar del Río
AVE Málaga-Granada
SEVILLA
Cercanías a
Antequera
AVE directo Málaga-Sevilla
Bobadilla
Bobadilla-Ronda-Algeciras
Antequera
MÁLAGA
Metro al Civil
Conexión con el Málaga TechPark
Conexión con El Palo y
Rincón de la Victoria
Marbella
Tren de la Costa
Soterramiento del
ferrocarril del Puerto
Source: Created by SUR
E. Hinojosa
In 2025, Malaga to Seville in one hour 35 minutes
When the Cordoba-Malaga AVE line was built the opportunity was missed to include a detour at Almodóvar del Río, which is where the Malaga line separates from the Seville line. So high speed trains between Malaga and Seville have to go into Cordoba station and out again. The contract for the bypass project to cut out the Cordoba corner, which would shorten the journey time between the two cities by 20 minutes (to 1 hour and 35 minutes), was awarded at the end of 2017. Six years later, the works are progressing very slowly and have been subject to modifications, delays and cost overruns. In the end, they will cost around 28 million euros and the section is unlikely to be in use before 2025.
Abandoned works, now just a promise
This is the story of a great fiasco. The 'A-92 railway' (so-called as it would be the railway version of the motorway between the two cities) gained a lot of momentum in the first decade of this century and even became part of an agreement whereby the central government and the Andalusian regional government shared the investment and the sections to be built.
In fact, the Andalusian government invested almost 300 million in the project that was abandoned in 2013. Sixty percent of the trackbed had already been built. Now, it is an idea that president Juan Manuel Moreno has promised to recover, but there are no signs so far of any steps forward. Part of this line under construction has been used for the mid-distance trains after a landslide caused serious problems to the old line.
Just waiting for the Loja bypass
The two cities are already connected by train, but the high speed service is still waiting for the completion of the section passing Loja. At the moment, the fastest train to Granada takes 1 hour and 18 minutes. The high speed service should cut journey time between the cities to 55 minutes. In this case, the most optimistic deadline is 2026.
Work on the Antequera-Granada AVE began in 2009. The Loja-Riofrío section has just entered the construction phase with a budget of 57 million euros. But there are more sections to the Loja bypass which total 19 kilometres. The rest of the projects are being drafted. These are the Loja-A92 section and the Loja-Valle del Genil section, totalling 14 kilometres. The viaduct over the conventional Bobadilla-Granada line has already been completed.
Boost for a key line between the Antequera dry port and Algeciras
This is a long-awaited project at a national level as it is the southern culmination of the Atlantic and Mediterranean rail freight corridors. It is of vital importance because it will create a 'rail motorway' between Zaragoza and Algeciras, passing through Malaga province, with a stop at the future Antequera dry port logistics hub.
The Bobadilla-Ronda-Algeciras line is very old, simple and not electrified. For decades it has had to contend with the limited budgetary allocations granted by successive national governments and the complex environmental procedures (the Campillos lagoon area, for example), which further lengthened the timescales.
Fortunately, in recent months it has experienced some momentum and 70% of its budget (472 million euros) has already been mobilised. The latest contract awarded is for 13.2 million euros for the renovation of the section between San Pablo and Almoraima (between the provinces of Cadiz and Malaga).
The plan for the complete renovation of the Bobadilla-Algeciras line, in addition to the modernisation of the track, includes the implementation of a third rail, its electrification and the extension of the sidings to accommodate longer trains.
The master plan approved for this line ends in 2028, making this the most promising deadline for doubling the capacity of the Port of Algeciras to receive or launch freight trains.
The much-demanded train line still to get off the ground
Connecting Malaga and Marbella by train is an old ambition that has accumulated as many promises as railway formats have been proposed. Currently, there is a growing trend that the ideal system is a shuttle or fast train between the two cities.
But this was not always the case, at some point the extension of the Malaga-Fuengirola Cercanías was on the table, but this option has been ruled out because it is already a 45-minute journey and the line is saturated. A second track could only be laid in three sub-sections due to the lack of land available on the Costa del Sol.
Plans to link the Costa del Sol by means of a 'metropolitan' rail system were also under way at one point. It was budgeted at four billion euros by the then Ministry of Public Works of the Junta de Andalucía and, what is more, a preliminary contract for a double tunnel in La Cala de Mijas was awarded for an amount close to 200 million euros in 2009. The crisis came and the work was deprogrammed and shelved.
Today the coastal train lacks a project. And it is not for lack of ideas. There are civil movements such as Plataforma Infraestructuras, which proposes taking the train to Marbella by an alternative inland route via the Guadalhorce Valley. It would allow for a new route at maximum speed, which would mean a journey time of 40 or 50 minutes. The idea is that it would run through the two Alhauríns, Coín and Monda to Mijas.
Another innovative project is that of consultant Lluis Sanvicens, a Catalan who has lived in the province for almost two decades, who claims that Marbella could be reached in less than an hour by designing a viaduct over the motorway.
Key for shipping freight from Malaga
Taking the old railway line into the Port of Malaga underground is an old project that right now is not even at square one. Old plans , which estimated the cost to be 50 million euros, will have to be redrafted. While Malaga Port could never aspire to be as important as Algeciras in terms of freight, the scheme would be key for exports to Morocco.
Just waiting for trains
The tracks and stations are ready and the local councils of Malaga and Antequera are keen to get the service going. But as yet there are no trains and, for the moment, the central government has not shown the slightest interest in providing them.
In January, Antequera's second AVE station was opened (Santa Ana, on the Malaga-Madrid line, is a long way out of town). This makes Antequera the only place in Spain with two AVE stations apart from Madrid. This opens up a range of very important connections, including the possibility of a Malaga-Antequera local Cercanías line; the current services are few and expensive.
The north extension of line 2 is under way
The countdown to the arrival of the metro to the Civil Hospital and the future regional hospital has begun. In October, the regional Ministry of Public Works awarded Sando, in a joint venture with Kerkros Innovaciones, the contract for the first section of the tunnel from El Corte Inglés, under Calle Hilera and up to the junction with Calle Santa Elena. The budget is 45 million and the deadline is three years. The next two sections, which stop at Eugenio Gross and the hospital complex, are still to be completed.
Metro or local train, still undecided
Initially, it was proposed that Malaga Metro's line 1 would reach the technology park above ground. It would be an uncomplicated and relatively cheap project, but the Junta shelved it, considering that the metro is not the right transport system to relieve the traffic jams at rush hour. Experts agree that a branch line of the Cercanías C2, Malaga-Álora, would be more competitive.
How to get to El Palo and Rincón
Initially an underground project was drawn up for a Metro line 3 between La Malagueta (where line 1 would originally have stopped), Pedregalejo and El Palo. From there, the Junta de Andalucía was committed to extending the metro to Rincón and later to the defunct Vélez tramway.
Right now, a rail connection is becoming more and more essential in view of the daily tailbacks on the motorway east of Malaga. Experts hope that an extension of the Cercanías local train to the Plaza de la Marina would act as a springboard to launch the service further east. But the format has not been decided and feasibility studies are needed.
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