Prolonged rail travel disruption begins in the Region of Murcia for maintenance works

11 weeks without a direct route to Madrid and cuts in Murcia-Alicante services

Work is still reported to be progressing well on the infrastructures which will eventually allow the city of Murcia to be incorporated into Spain’s AVE high-speed rail network, but in the meantime rail services are set to suffer more disruption in the coming weeks as Renfe carry out essential maintenance and improvement work.

The company has announced a reduction in the “cercanías” service between Alicante and Murcia which will mean 41 trains running every day rather than the current 47 while work is carried out on the tracks between 22^nd February and 5^th March. Two of the suspended services are from Murcia to Alicante and the other four in the other direction, and the timetables of nine other trains are affected during the two-week period.

In normal circumstances prior to the pandemic the Alicante-Murcia line, with 9 stops along the route, was used by an average of 6,000 passengers per day.

The Alicante-Murcia services affected are those which normally leave Alicante at 7.27, 8.10 and 16.05, with departure times modified to 7.15, 8.35 and 16.15 respectively, while the journey time for the 14.35 train is lengthened by 5 minutes.

Travellers from Murcia should note that the 10.05 train will be leaving at 10.14, the 15.15 service at 15.30 and the 17.00 train at 16.43.

Meanwhile, further disruption to rail travel in the Region of Murcia is to begin on 1^st March when urgent work begins on the line in Cieza, leaving passengers without a direct service between Murcia and Madrid for 11 weeks. Alternative transport will be provided by the AVE running from Orihuela in the province of Alicante and by coach services from Murcia, and it is forecast that this will be necessary until 16^th May.

The damage to the line in Cieza was caused by the disastrously heavy storms of the autumn and winter of 2019-20, since when it has been found that a “serious risk” to both passenger and goods trains has been caused by erosion and subsidence.

In addition, it will be necessary to make changes at the station of Alicante so that freight trains can travel through it as they are diverted from the Chinchilla line: there are ten convoys of goods trains a week in both directions travelling between Escombreras, just outside Cartagena, and Getafe in the outskirts of Madrid, and two more on the route from Murcia to Madrid and Bilbao.

In some ways it is fortunate that these works coincide with the restrictions on travel which are still in force in order to curb the spread of Covid-19 as the travel plans of fewer people will be affected, but they also serve to emphasize the problems faced by Renfe over the last year. As a direct consequence of the pandemic Renfe lost almost half of its passengers last year and posted record pre-tax losses during 2020 of 479 million euros, and with the third wave of contagion only just subsiding it seems that early 2021 will not be much easier for the company.