Spanish News Today Editors Roundup Weekly Bulletin May 17

FEATURED ARTICLES: "Get a TIE now or face trouble at airports, Brits told" and "Passengers indignant over high-speed Spanish train journey that takes 7 hours"

It’s another travel-heavy weekly roundup of Spanish news for you this week as we bring you the latest announcements of so-called “high-speed” rail services, what any non-European who is resident in Spain has to know about the upcoming changes to airport security, the most recent crackdown on penalising bad driving on Spanish roads, and how the airports are faring up so far this year.

Away we go…

Putting the ‘peed off’ in ‘high-speed of fast trains’

Okay, so I admit that doesn’t really make a lot of sense but just bear with me on this one.

This story is about a new train service starting up in the south of Spain. We’ve had plenty of train stories in this bulletin before, and for a good reason. Going by train is a great way to get around Spain and see different parts of this fascinating country, where every province has its own accent, history and amazing treasures to be uncovered.

By and large, the train service in Spain is reliable, affordable and has good connections, at least when compared to certain other countries, and so the announcement by Renfe this week that they will start a new “direct” high-speed AVE train route between Murcia and Málaga was at first welcomed as a logical next step in the ever-improving rail service in the country.

Then you look at the fine print and something starts to smell. So, when they say “direct” you would think it would go via the shortest route possible, right? Straight across, east to west. Maybe a stop in Almería (if that city actually had good train connections yet) or in Granada, but no major mucking about.

Not so. The “direct” route between Málaga and Murcia goes via Madrid. Yep, that’s right. You have to go all the way up to the capital, slap bang in the centre of the country, then come all the way back down again to the coast. How is that “direct”? Well, say the company in their defence, you don’t have to get off and change trains in Madrid. Just sit on the same train and it will take you to your onward destination.

Yeah, but a good six and a half hours later! Which makes the term “high-speed” stick in the jaw a bit. Spain’s AVE trains are so called because it stands for ‘Alta Velocidad’ – ‘high speed’. And even if they’re going fast, it doesn’t mean you’re going to get to your destination any sooner. It’s still faster to drive or take the bus to get from Málaga to Murcia or vice versa.

The Murcia-Málaga line is due to start on June 1, and will run every day of the week.

In addition to this new line, Renfe will soon be creating connections between Málaga and six other cities – Cuenca, Albacete, Alicante, Villena, Elche and Orihuela. These are also being billed as “direct” services, despite the fact that they do involve a change of trains. In this case, “direct” just means that the entire journey can be booked on a single integrated ticket, rather than having to buy the different legs of the journey separately.

It’s not all bad news, though. This week, the Portuguese government announced plans to build a high-speed railway connecting the Portuguese capital of Lisbon with Madrid in Spain, a huge project that’s expected to be finished by 2034.

The train, which will have multiple handy stops along the way, aims to ferry passengers between Portugal and Spain in just three hours. If the plans come to fruition, the 40 daily flights between Lisbon and Madrid and 20 between Porto and Lisbon could be drastically reduced, a good way to cut down on highly polluting short-haul flights without inconveniencing travellers.

Some sections of these railway connections are already under construction, such as the one that connects Évora with Elvas, on the border with Spain. However, work has yet to begin on the tracks that connect Évora with Lisbon.

All TIEd up

You know how we’ve talked before about the EU’s new Entry/Exit Scheme (EES) that it’s introducing this autumn? It’s a way of digitally logging who goes in and out of the Schengen Area, to better control the flow of people and control incongruencies in migration. Stop people overstaying their welcome, basically.

It’s a necessary first step towards introducing the ETIAS, a visa waiver scheme that is expected to come into force next year and will mean that citizens of many non-Schengen countries who are not resident in a European country will have to pay about 7 euros to get in.

To do this, they’re having to install biometric scanners in all international ports and airports, to digitise the whole thing. Bring it into the 21st century.

Well, the UK Foreign Office has just updated the Living in Spain page of its GOV.UK website, adding in some new advice for British citizens who are resident in Spain with regards to this new system.

As a British citizen, you’ll have your UK passport, which is “a biometric ID card” that can be scanned by the EES machines, which will automatically wave you through passport control. Phasing out the humble border security guard.

If you do not have residency status in Spain or another European country, though, your passport will need to be stamped to say how long you’ve been in the country and let authorities know when it is you’re supposed to leave. Again, to stop you from outstaying your welcome.

To avoid getting their passports stamped, all residents have to do is present their Spanish residency card – the Tarjeta de Identificación de Extranjero or TIE – along with their passport.

All well, so far. This will be familiar territory for anyone who has crossed the border at any point in the last eight years.

Where the EES and the residency document clash is if you are one of those old-time Spanish residents who got their NIE on a green slip of A4 paper over a decade ago and haven’t yet updated to the new TIE card.

The old-style Green Certificate was literally that – a piece of paper with your name and NIE number on it that you were supposed to carry around with you – the original, mind, and not a photocopy. It also doesn’t have a photo of you on it and has no validity as an identity document if not accompanied by, say, a passport or driver’s licence. So you were required by law to always carry these incredibly important documents on your person wherever you went.

Anyone who becomes a resident in Spain now is automatically issued the TIE. They don’t give out the Green Certificates anymore. There’s a certain romanticism to holding on to it, but to be honest they were a pain. Getting the TIE card is a no-brainer, and especially now that anyone who only has the Green Certificate will probably have a harder time getting through passport control quickly.

The Green Certs are obviously not biometric ID documents. If that’s all you’ve got to prove your residency in Spain and you don’t want to get your passport stamped, it’s probably going to take you longer to go through security. You’ll have to go through the line at the airport with the human border control guards, of which there will be ever fewer.

Let’s be clear – you are by no means obliged to change your green paper for a TIE. The Green Cert is still a valid legal document, despite what anyone behind the desk of a bank/ayuntamiento/insert bureaucratic entity here* may tell you. But do yourself a favour and go to an Extranjería immigration office to get the card anyway. Sure, some people have said that it’s too hard to get an appointment at one of these offices, but you’ve had years to do so, and the British Embassy in Madrid has vowed to fight to make more appointments available so that Brits can get a TIE.

To sum up, here’s British Ambassador to Spain, Hugh Elliot: “It’s really important that any British person who lives in Spain gets the TIE – not only because it is the most durable and dependable way to prove your rights in Spain, but also to avoid disruption at the border when the EU’s Entry Exit Scheme comes into force.

“We are working with the Spanish Government and the EU to prepare for the implementation of this new scheme and we have requested that more TIE appointments are made available.”

Murcia

A little Corvera Airport news now, as the latest passenger numbers for the month of April and for the year so far have just been released. The Region of Murcia International Airport saw a total of 91,818 passengers in April 2024, almost half of the total number of passengers for the year so far, reflecting the boost from the start of the summer flight season and the Easter holidays. Despite these encouraging signs, the increase from April of the previous year was a modest 0.7%, equating to barely 600 more passengers. However, looking at the broader picture, passenger numbers from January to April 2024 showed a more robust growth of 9.4% compared to the same period in the previous year.

Interestingly, while international passengers continue to be the majority, there has been a noticeable rise in domestic travellers, attributed to the new flight routes to Madrid and Barcelona initiated last December. In contrast with Murcia’s extremely modest growth, close neighbour Alicante Airport has surged past its pre-pandemic passenger numbers, exceeding them by 7% and setting new records in terms of passenger numbers every single month so far this year.

Still, it’s the long game that Murcia’s trying to play. Looking ahead, the airport is set to launch several new summer flight paths, with the routes to Bilbao and Porto in the north of Portugal starting in June and July, respectively. Airport managers and Murcia Today Editors alike are optimistic that the summer holiday season will see a slight uptick in passengers, encouraging airlines to expand their offerings at the airport for 2025.

Cartagena found itself at the centre of a national and international controversy this week with the planned arrival of the cargo ship Borkum, which was alleged to be carrying arms destined for Israel. The ship, which flies the flag of Antigua and Barbuda but is German-owned, was initially accused by the Solidarity Network Against the Occupation of Palestine (RESCOP) of transporting weapons to Israel to be used in the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict. They demanded that the ship not be allowed to leave the Escombreras port (pictured) and that its cargo be impounded.

However, Spain’s Minister for the Economy, Trade and Enterprise, Carlos Cuerpo, ensured that the ship’s final destination is the Czech Republic and that all its paperwork is in order.

But Irene Montero, former Minister for Equality and a leading candidate for the Podemos party in the European elections, suggested that the fact that the Czech Republic is a landlocked country raises suspicions that the arms might actually be headed for Israel. Montero insisted that the weapons could potentially be used in an act of genocide, implicating Spain in violating international laws against facilitating military materials that could lead to human rights violations.

Of course, the Spanish government has firmly stated that no licences have been issued for arms exports to Israel since the conflict began. Indeed, Spain remains one of the most vocal nations in Europe, along with Poland, Ireland and Norway, in advocating for the recognition of the State of Palestine and has committed to doing so by the summer, or even as early as next week if reports on Irish public television are to be believed.

In the end, the Borkum decided not to dock in the port of Cartagena at all, where it was due to unload some cargo to be sent to Granada. Instead, it weighed anchor just off the coast on Thursday evening and headed on its merry way to Slovenia, unwilling to face public and official scrutiny after the Spanish government stopped another ship on the very same day that was also suspected to be sending arms to Israel.

Making waves of a different kind, the Region of Murcia is set to get its first artificial wave pool for practising surfing. This is at the Altaona Sports & Wellness Resort, an urbanisation just being built close to Murcia capital city and which developers The Art of Living in Spain (TAOLIS) claim aims to redefine sports, health and wellbeing within the Costa Cálida’s real estate sector.

The wave pool, capable of producing up to 1,000 perfect waves per hour, is supposed to merge the thrill of surfing with a whole healthy lifestyle that promotes long-term wellbeing and tries to increase residents’ life expectancy by keeping them active. And if that takes a wave pool, then a wave pool it is.

Bored this weekend? Nothing to do? Of course not! It’s International Museum Day this Saturday, and loads of towns across the Region of Murcia have free activities going on at their museums well into the night. Or there are loads of other bits and bobs going on. Have a scroll, see if something takes your fancy:

Spain

Anyone who has been driving for more than 20 minutes knows the general overtaking rule on dual carriageways and motorways: there’s one (or more) lanes for us to cruise along in, and one lane that’s specifically there so that cars can overtake slower vehicles in front. In theory, we should scoot back into the ‘driving’ lanes after overtaking.

But in reality, many drivers prefer to speed along the usually quieter left lane, which can itself cause traffic jams and, what’s worse, seriously impede emergency vehicles. It’s for this very reason that the Spanish Traffic authorities (DGT) are implementing new rules relating to left-lane driving as of 2024, and flouters will be heavily fined.

Essentially, motorists will be penalised if they don’t immediately move out of the left-hand lane after they’ve overtaken, but there’s more. During times of heavy snow and ice, overtaking on the left will be totally prohibited to ensure that emergency vehicles and snowplows have exclusive use of a central lane at all times.

And there are changes for motorcycle riders, too, who at the moment aren’t allowed to use the hard shoulder under any circumstance. From next year, two-wheeled vehicles will be allowed to use the shoulder if they are stuck in a traffic jam, as long as they don’t exceed 30 kilometres per hour and always respect the priority of other vehicles forced to rise on the hard shoulder, such as bicycles.

Don’t forget to join our Driving in Spain Facebook group for all the latest motoring and travel updates

To say the world has been gripped by ‘Baby Reindeer fever’ is a bit of an understatement. It’s easily the most popular show on Netflix so far this year and its protagonists have featured on all the major talk shows, including Lorraine and Piers Morgan.

The controversial shows was written by and stars Scottish man Richard Gadd, who chronicles his years of being stalked, harassed and attacked by a terrifying stalker, Martha.

And in a creepy case of life imitating art, another real-life Baby Reindeer stalker was arrested in Madrid this week, accused of a years-long reign of terror over dozens of victims.

The suspect is 33-year-old Venezuelan woman Rebeca García. After the authorities in Venezuela were flooded with complaints against her – which included copies of thousands of threatening and sexually explicit emails, texts, social media posts and voicemails, the police issued an alert.

Just a few days later, another Venezuelan citizen recognised García and her brother Francisco in a supermarket in the Spanish capital from the wanted posters, and the pair were picked up by police.

According to Spanish authorities, her unending tirade caused families to “live in terror” after she broke into their homes, invaded their personal lives and even took “intimate photos” without consent.

One alleged victim, Claudia Aguirrezabal, told police that Ms. García wrote her a 500-page pornographic book and once sent her a message reading: “The killer is inside the house.”

She also claims that the alleged stalker began threatening her friends through email, writing: “If somebody is touching you, I am going to kill them as that is disrespectful to us and our relationship.”

But despite this evidence, the police in Madrid weren’t able to detain the siblings for long, since the Venezuelan authorities haven’t yet issued an arrest warrant, so it would appear that the pair are, once again, at large.

Each year, the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) selects dozens of towns across the globe as the very best tourist destinations, and Spain has just revealed the five candidates it will be putting forward.

The ‘Best Tourism Town’ awards choose areas with fewer than 15,000 inhabitants which shine as “examples of rural destinations with cultural and natural assets that preserve and promote rural and community-based values, products and their lifestyle.”

The five small towns Spain has shortlisted this year are Casares (Málaga), Aínsa (Huesca), Sos del Rey Católico (Zaragoza), Cudillero (Asturias) and Pals (Girona).

Alicante

Long-awaited plans for a second runway at Alicante Airport have been scuppered by Spain’s Ministry of Transport, although a considerable amount has been set aside in the municipal budgets to expand the current terminal.

Transport Minister Óscar Puente has insisted that Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport simply doesn’t need another runway to accommodate the rapidly growing demand, and he claims that all of the major airlines agree with him.

Last month, Aena CEO Maurici Lucena sparked controversy when he hinted that a new runway would be included in massive expansion plans scheduled to begin sometime after 2027, but it now seems that the 600 million euros will be spent on building an additional terminal instead.

With this extension, the Minister is confident that Alicante Airport will easily be able to handle 26 million passengers per year.

This doesn’t seem like too much of a stretch considering London’s Gatwick Airport welcomes 35 million travellers per annum with only one runway, while Alicante currently only has to cope with around 16 million.

However, the Ministry has assured that if these lofty forecasts are exceeded in the future, the idea of building a second runway could be revisited.

A gruesome discovery has been made in the small Alicante town of Jijona, after a dog belonging to a local farm in the district of El Espartal dug up a dismembered human arm on April 27. Despite teams of experts combing the area, the rest of the body hasn’t been found.

The dog’s owner alerted police to the macabre find after his animal returned to the farm with the arm in its mouth.

The victim has now been identified as a 40-year-old German woman, most likely a holidaymaker. Her husband is also missing.

The finca where the body part was found is located between the industrial estates of El Espartal and the electrical substation, in the vicinity of the CV-774 highway that connects the town with Busot.

A car which had been rented by the couple was found abandoned in the Ciudad del Turrón industrial estate (Espartal II) and workers in the area informed the Guardia Civil that the vehicle had been parked there for a few months without anyone moving it.

Teams of technicians are still diligently searching the finca and the surrounding land in the hope that the location of the rest of the woman’s body might shed some light on the cause of death, although at the moment everything points towards murder.

Finally, there was a kind of funny incident on the beach in Benidorm last Sunday when all of a sudden people noticed that a car had appeared on the sandy shore of the Playa del Poniente beach, right at the end of the beachfront promenade at the start of the Avenida Vicente Llorca Alós.

The black Mercedes-Benz got stuck in the sand after having driven down the pedestrian walkway and onto the beach, and had to be towed away to be impounded by police. The driver was nowhere to be found, but was later identified as a French citizen. While there was no explanation as to how and why the ‘conducteur’ ended up so far from the road, what is known is that he’ll be fined almost 1,000 euros – 200 for negligent driving, another 150 for prohibited entry and more than 500 euros for irregularities in the documentation required to drive in Spain, as well as 60 euros for the tow truck callout!

Andalucía

The Strait of Gibraltar has recently been the scene of one of the first killer whale attacks this year. On the morning of Sunday May 12, the ‘Alboran Cognac’ was sailing around 14 miles from Cape Spartel with two crew members on board when they felt several hard bangs to the bottom of the boat.

These bangs were caused by a pod of orcas, or killer whales, which destroyed the boat’s rudder and gouged several holes in the hull, causing the vessel to take on water. Luckily, an oil tanker was working nearby and rescued the two sailors, who were thankfully unharmed.

The sailboat, though, had suffered extensive damage and sank a short time later.

The waters off the coast of Spain are home to several pods of orcas and run-ins between boats and whales are far from uncommon; however, this is one of the first reported killer whale attacks this year.

Although they’re usually called ‘attacks’, most experts don’t believe the orcas are intentionally trying to damage ships or harm those on board. It’s far more likely that the enormous mammals are simply curious and sowing off their playful natures. Another school of thought is that female killer whales use the boats to teach their young how to hunt.

Sticking with the maritime theme, Hollywood A-lister Will Smith might not strike you as a natural water sports guy, but the Men in Black star is nevertheless taking to the water this June, captaining a team of sailors in the E1 Puerto Banús GP, which has been dubbed the ‘Formula 1 of the Sea’.

The exciting two-day competition (June 1 and 2) will take place right in front of the Marbella port and expected to attract more than 8,000 spectators. The impressive line-up of teams will include tennis player Rafa Nadal, singer Marc Anthony, F1 driver Sergio Pérez, former footballer Didier Drogba, former American football player Tom Brady and record producer Steve Aoki, as well as the Fresh Prince himself.

This entirely unique sporting event will be kicked off with a concert by Puerto Rican Marc Anthony at Oasisss Marbella Fest on May 31. Music fans can expect a few guest appearances as well as the competitors mark the official start of the E1 Puerto Banús GP.

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