Date Published: 19/11/2019
ARCHIVED - Rail link from Murcia to Alicante airport moves a step closer
ARCHIVED ARTICLE
An underground station at Alicante-Elche will provide an easy link to the city of Murcia
Another step has been taken towards making it possible for people to travel easily by train to the airport of Alicante-Elche from a variety of locations including the city of Murcia, improving the rail network to create a station in the terminal building rather than using the current run-down facility in Torrellano, 2 kilometres away.
In August the contract for a series of technical studies was put out to tender by the Ministry of Development, and it has now been confirmed that the Ministry has given its approval to a feasibility study of the alterations needed.
Despite traffic having grown by around 60 per cent over the last five years at Alicante-Elche, and despite the huge investment made by Aena in the new terminal building, the lack of a rail connection has been something of an incongruity for Spain’s fifth busiest airport in terms of passenger numbers. But in 2017 Íñigo de la Serna, then Minister for Development in the Spanish government, outlined plans to rectify this deficiency, presenting a plan which was estimated to mean an investment of 85 million euros in creating an underground station in the terminal in El Altet and connecting it via the old Torrellano line to the rest of the local rail network. At that time it was envisaged that there could be trains running to and from Alicante-Elche airport by the year 2025.
At present the Torrellano line is not electrified and is very rundown, so a great deal of work is needed, but if and when it is completed it will mean the fulfilment of a long-standing promise that a rail service would be provided once passenger numbers at Alicante-Elche exceeded 6 million per year: this was achieved 19 years ago, and by the end of December the total for 2019 will probably have reached over 15 million!
Meanwhile, the new airport in Corvera is still finding its feet. Passenger numbers there are down by 143,000 in comparison with the first ten months of 2018 at the previous airport of Murcia-San Javier, which it replaced on 15th January, and public transport links are limited to the bus services to and from coastal areas of the Region of Murcia and, of course, taxis.
As for rail links, those with long memories may recall that in 2010 what now seems like a far-fetched fantasy seemed close to becoming a reality, as the then regional president, Ramón Luis Valcárcel, reported after a meeting with the national Minister for development, José Blanco, that a proposal to create a tunnel under the mountains to the south of the city of Murcia for the AVE high-speed rail link with Cartagena was a “realistic option”, and that if this were to happen a station would be created at the new airport.
Much has changed since then, of course, and it is also worth remembering that at that time the AVE line to Murcia was reportedly on schedule to open in 2014 – this has still not happened – and the airport itself might welcome its first passenger flights in 2011 or 2012! In the meantime, the 700-million-euro tunnel option has been discarded and practically forgotten, and no other proposals have been seriously considered to provide a rail service to the airport in Corvera.
Follow Murcia Today on Facebook to keep up to date with all the latest news, events and information in the Region of Murcia and the rest of Spain: https://www.facebook.com/MurciaToday/