16 Apr, 2014 @ 15:00
1 min read

End of the line for AVE high speed rail link between Sevilla and Malaga

AVE in spain e
BULLET TRAINS: Will be transporting organs across Spain

By Giles Brown

A DISASTROUS U-turn by the Junta has sounded the death knell for Andalucia’s high speed rail potential.

The PP party has slammed the decision to scrap the rail link between Malaga and Sevilla as ‘ridiculous’.

Some €280 million has already been spent on the line, including 77 kilometres of platforms to accommodate the AVE high speed trains.

Embarrassingly, €180 million of EU funds already allocated for the project will now have to be returned to Brussels.

The Junta will also now have to spend millions of public money landscaping a large amount of land that had already been dug up in anticipation of the rail link.

At a press conference at Antequera’s Santa Ana station PP leader of Malaga, Elias Bendodo, described the decision as ‘lacking foresight’.

His colleague Juan Bueno in Sevilla also highlighted what he called the ‘inefficiency and ineptitude’ of the regional government and said that it was more interested in ‘posturing that in the service for its citizens’.

The scrapping of the line comes after the Junta admitted it did not have the money to complete the project.

Spiraling costs have meant that the Junta is unable to provide the €800million needed to complete the line.

Imogen Calderwood

DO YOU HAVE NEWS FOR US at Spain’s most popular English newspaper - the Olive Press? Contact us now via email: newsdesk@theolivepress.es or call 951 273 575. To contact the newsdesk out of regular office hours please call +34 665 798 618.

3 Comments

  1. all the money wasted on roads with no traffic and airports with no planes or passengers
    Also some of the High Speed trains operate at a loss of Euro 18,000 per journey

    There is just no longer the money to keep spending and the credit card is maxed out

  2. If only politicians here in Spain, the UK, USA, et al. had some practical BUSINESS experience instead of going from university directly into politics – with no responsibility for their errors. No wonder what we “get” in office.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

carlos diaz fernandez e
Previous Story

Public pest does ‘triple’ on Spanish TV

deep sea fishing
Next Story

NGOs demand end to Spanish destruction of deep-sea ecosystems

Latest from Malaga

Go toTop

More From The Olive Press

Missing Brit is found after vanishing from Malaga almost two months ago

A ‘VULNERABLE’ British woman who disappeared after landing in Malaga

Watch: Snow storm batters Spain as couple are rescued from trapped car and temperatures reach -9.5C

THIS is the moment people had to be rescued from