THE Costa del Sol attracts tens of millions of tourists each year, both domestic and foreign, who are drawn to its beach resorts and picturesque hilltop towns.

But as many visitors will have discovered, public transport connections along the coast leave a lot to be desired.

Now, the head of tourism for Malaga and the Costa del Sol is demanding that Madrid invest in infrastructure in the region and build a coast rail line to connect towns from Estepona and Marbella to the provincial capital.

Francisco Salado has written a letter to Spain’s Minister of Transport Raquel Sanchez raising the issue.

Not only is he calling for a regional railway link but also complains that there are not enough trains connecting Malaga with Madrid.

Renfe launched its AVE high speed rail service between the two cities in 2007 bringing travellers the 512 km in just 2 hours and 20 minutes. 

But while there were 14 trains daily between Malaga and Madrid pre-pandemic, the number has now been cut to just nine and the late night service dropped entirely. He added that the high price of rail tickets often made travel by plane a cheaper option.

 Salado complained that the service was ‘grossly insufficient’ considering Malaga is the fastest growing province by population. 

“It is a problem that is causing great concern in our province and in the entire tourism and business sector of the Costa del Sol,” he said.

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1 COMMENT

  1. Of course this is desperately needed. Has been for years. The Costa del Sol is one of the Top Tourist/Holiday destinations in the world! So now, they write a letter? Gee a letter, that will work! How about stop send in regional money to Madrid until they give uis our fair share in infrastructure spending? On top of that, the A7 is a disaster! So in the interim, why don’t they limit truck traffic on A7 to right lane only, open up the AP7, add more exits to it and reduce or remove the exorbitant tolls? Oh, but both the high speed train and improvements to the road system would make too much sense for the Socialists running things in Madrid! Reminder, Andalucia is not PSOE territory. Anyone think this could be political… Duh?

    Location : Marbella

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