Agreement signed to build Corvera airport rail link

Murcia regional news, the AVE link will arrive in 2014 as projected

Infrastructural discussions hit the headlines yesterday as president Valcarcel met with the Minister for development, José Blanco, to sign the convenios agreed earlier this year which will release funds for several major infrastructural developments, including that which will bring the AVE high speed train to the region.

There´s been a lot of moaning in the press recently following the inauguration of the Madrid to Albacete and Valencia high speed lines, but the minister assured that the lines would arrive in Murcia capital in 2014, and that in 2012 new hybrid trains would reduce the Madrid -  Murcia journey by 35 minutes.

Planning is already underway for the next stage of the AVE,  which will take a central route through the region to link Murcia to Cartagena, and projects have been initiated to prepare for the stations which will be required to service the trains.
The next leg which will link in Lorca, is still under discussion, as the council want  4.2 kilometres of the track built underground, but the department of development only wants to accept a 1.6 km long stretch underground, as the costs of construction are so much higher. At the moment there is no agreement as to how the construction will take place.

Lorca to Almeria AVE with stop at Vera

From Lorca, the track will run to Almeria, with the next stop being Vera.
The subsecretary of development presented the complete studies  of the plans in last weeks BOE, Boletín Oficial del Estado for the Almeria to Murcia section, which will have a total length of 185 kilometres and cost 2500 million euros to build.

The bulletin published the studies for the sections Pulpi-Vera and Nijar-Almeria, which had been difficult to complete due to the result of the environmental impact studies in those sections.

At the moment no commitments are being made about the dates and projected timescale for building this section, obtaining finances being the immediately obvious issue, although the Sub secretary said that this section was very complicated and would require a number of sophisticated engineering projects to be undertaken.

The results, however, will be worth the wait, the new line making a journey from Barcelona to Almeria possible in 4 hours 15 minutes, as opposed to 12 hours currently, as well as opening up the whole Mediterranean corridor via a high speed link.

The other point which was important in yesterdays meeting was confirmation of the agreement to build the railway connection from the new international airport at Corvera, which would be built at the same time as the Cartagena to Murcia AVE link.

A deal has been agreed between the Ministry for development and the Regional government, The autonomous community will build the station at Corvera and pay for the project to be prepared, and the department of development will finance the infrastructure and the drawing up of the plans

President Valcarcel was at pains to stress that the construction of the train link would not hold up the opening of the airport, and that it would take time to carry out all the environmental impact studies and obtain all the permissions necessary to enable the construction to take place, so the train terminal would open at some point in the future.
Construction of this central section of line is unlikely to begin until the works are well underway for the Murcia line itself, so it is unlikely that this will realistically happen until 2014, so don´t get too excited.

 NB Eds Note

There is some confusion in ex-pat circles about this Corvera link. Things do change, but the last information released was not talking about the Corvera rail link being a stop on the high speed line. The Corvera link will be a spur track, which will link to the high speed train via Cartagena. The link is only possible now that what is known as the "central route" for the AVE railway line has been selected, which is the most expensive of the options available, but enables the airport line to join the planned new infrastructure.

Of course, this may change in the future if the Paramount park is built, as it makes perfect sense to build a station at Corvera, but for now, this is not what is planned.

Other points signed and agreed yesterday improve the road infrastructure;
The motorway from Zeneta - Santomera. The regional government will execute the works and the Ministry give 110 million for the construction.
Motorway of Regueron. The Ministry will give the money for the Zeneta- Beniajan section and the region will carry out the construction.

Autovia del Altiplano. In 2011 the works will be complated on the A-33 linking Blanca and Jumilla. In 2012 the works will be licenced for Jumilla-Yecla, Yecla -Caudete and Caudete-Fuente la Higuera ( with private capital )
Two "dry ports" will be constructed in Murcia and El Gorguel as part of the plans to improve goods traffic.