Walter Finch
MADRID’S tepid response to a long-demanded coastal train running along the Costa del Sol from Malaga to Estepona via Marbella has been branded ‘shameful’.
The government in Madrid recently complained of the train line’s ‘complexity from territorial, functional and economic points of view.’
The comments provoked outrage in Malaga for revealing what the local PP administration perceive to be a lack of political will to develop the infrastructure which they consider essential for the region’s growth.
The Government’s deputy delegate, Javier Salas, told Malaga Hoy that a ‘serious study of mobility to Marbella does not cost just €200,000 or €300,000, but millions.’
Despite being pressed on the matter and promising to review previous feasibility studies, Salas appeared to fob off further questions on the topic.
An outraged Jose Ramon Carmona, the PP’s General Secretary in Malaga, accused the government of having a ‘premeditated plan’ to torpedo the project.
“The Government throws out in just three lines an infrastructure project fundamental for the development of our province and confirms it has zero interest,” he raged.
“This is not an isolated response, but a premeditated plan by the PSOE to reject the execution of this important infrastructure.”
The project has been languishing for decades since it was first proposed in 1979, while irate residents and visitors complain at the lack of mobility along the coast.
But it has rarely fallen off the local agenda, with concrete steps towards its developing two proposed routes taken as recently as 2018.
Despite investing €8.4 million in the last decade for project studies, the rail link has not made it onto Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s agenda.
Politicians in Malaga have been advocating for a railway from the Costa del Sol to Estepona as an initial phase, with plans to extend it to Algeciras.
They argue it would be an essential complement to the region’s dynamic potential for opportunity, employment, and wealth generation.
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