The Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, the Junta de Andalucía, the Diputación de Málaga and 18 mayors from the coast of Málaga and Cadiz met on Wednesday 17th to look for solutions to the mobility problems that exist on the Costa del Sol. The meeting, which was described as “landmark” and which create great media expentacy, not in vain concerns a population of 2.7 million people, concluded with important commitments. 

Thus, the Secretary of State of the Ministry, José Antonio Santano, began his speech by addressing the agreements reached on the coastal train: “I want to clearly show the commitment of the Government of Spain, as I have expressed in the meeting, and of the Ministry to start taking steps in terms of feasibility and informative studies that may lead to a specific train model for the Costa del Sol corridor”.  The Secretary explained that the feasibility study will be initiated, followed by the tendering of the informative study in 2025. However, the meeting also agreed on the creation of a working group to define, prior to the tender, how the train model will be, together with the Junta and the surrounding municipalities. “Mijas is one of the locations where it has been studied and considered the possibility of a railway connection with the rest of the municipalities, which currently runs from Fuengirola to Malaga, but which could also reach Nerja and even the Campo de Gibraltar”, said the mayoress of Mijas, Ana Mata (PP), who was present at the meeting and who valued the public transport.

Likewise, a second working group was set up to discuss short- and medium-term measures on mobility, an issue that was also discussed at the meeting, with particular emphasis on the problems of traffic congestion on the A-7. Thus, in a more immediate way, other commitments were defined with regard to the dual carriageway and the AP-7, on which possible discounts “that could improve or facilitate traffic flow” will be analysed, said Santano, who linked these possible subsidies “to a more global, more comprehensive approach, also improving urban and inter-urban public transport, along the whole corridor of the Costa del Sol”. However, he reminded that it must be taken into account that the AP-7 has a concession. From Mijas, this last commitment has also been valued. In this regard, Mata stressed “the need to start analysing the situation we are experiencing, both on the motorway, the AP-7, and on the A-7 dual carriageway”. Thus, the mayoress of Mijas mentioned the “new roads that need to be studied” and emphasised “the possibility of giving accessibility to all those urbanisations and towns that are growing in Mijas”.    

 

Institutional collaboration

The meeting highlighted the need to work together. “Today we have laid on the table the fact that we can reach agreements and consensus. The Andalusian Regional Government was clear that it was important to address the issue of mobility, starting with the coastal train”, said the Andalusian Regional Minister of Public Works, Rocío Blanco.

The president of the Málaga Provincial Council, Francisco Salado, considered that “the priority was to look for a solution, which we know will be a long-term one, for the coastal train and to study this train model”. Salado also considered consensus to be ‘’essential‘’.

 

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