Costa Del Sol Mayors United In Demands For Longer, Better Train Line

Trending 6 hours ago

Half a period aft nan motorboat of Malaga’s Cercanías commuter obstruction network, section leaders from nan state and nan Costa del Sol person issued a unified request for contiguous action to reside nan region’s terrible mobility crisis. 

The event, which marked nan 50th day of nan Cercanías, was led by Patricia Navarro, president of Malaga’s Popular Party (PP), and attended by mayors from Malaga, Torremolinos, Benalmadena, Fuengirola, Mijas, Estepona, and Benahavís, arsenic good arsenic representatives from Marbella, Manilva, Casares, and nan president of nan Malaga Provincial Council.

The commemorative arena doubled arsenic a level for a request successful nan strongest imaginable terms: nan hold of nan obstruction web to Marbella, Estepona, and Algeciras, coupled pinch urgent modernisation of nan C-1 Cercanías line. Described arsenic Spain’s astir profitable obstruction line, nan C-1 is plagued by capacity shortages and predominant disruptions and presents what Navarro called a “third-world image.”

Navarro poured scorn connected Transport and Sustainable Mobility Minister Óscar Puente for failing to present actual plans during a caller visit, stating, “Óscar Puente passes by and leaves Malaga’s residents waiting connected nan platform.” She highlighted nan deficiency of measures to reside mobility challenges successful 1 of Spain’s fastest-growing regions, which gains astir 20,000 caller residents annually and has doubled its organization since nan Cercanías began successful 1975.

“This train won’t stop,” Navarro declared, saying that governmental will is each that’s needed to instrumentality captious short-, medium-, and semipermanent improvements. Navarro besides dismissed nan deficiency of a nationalist fund arsenic an excuse while making mention of Malaga’s important taxation contributions of complete €5.5 cardinal successful 2024 and a 20 per cent summation successful fiscal gross successful nan first 4 months of 2025.

The mayors drew crisp comparisons pinch Catalonia, wherever complete €1.1 cardinal has been invested successful nan Rodalies obstruction work successful caller years. In contrast, Malaga’s obstruction infrastructure suffers from neglect, pinch issues for illustration persistent escalator failures astatine nan airdrome position and a caller AVE passageway illness successful Valle de Abdalajís cited arsenic grounds of deterioration.

A manifesto presented by nan mayors outlined circumstantial demands, including accelerated studies to widen nan rail line to Marbella, Estepona, and Campo de Gibraltar, pinch early plans for Nerja. Immediate improvements to nan C-1 statement see extended operating hours, way doubling, upgraded stations and tunnels, and measures to forestall trains from bypassing stations during highest times owed to overcrowding.

The manifesto put accent connected nan biology and economical benefits of obstruction arsenic a sustainable carrier action and criticised nan authorities for neglecting nan Malaga region and Andalucía’s obstruction networks complete nan past 7 years. With increasing tourism and organization pressures, nan region’s outdated and overstretched obstruction strategy falls short of gathering modern demands.

The Costa del Sol’s leaders explained that nan province, location to Spain’s only metropolis of complete 100,000 residents without obstruction entree (Marbella), deserves a 21st-century obstruction network. “The Costa del Sol cannot hold immoderate longer,” they concluded. “There are nary excuses – only a deficiency of will.”

More