Work on track to slash train journey time between Malaga and Seville next year

Ignacio Lillo

Malaga

Wednesday, 16 October 2024, 09:38

The Almodóvar rail bypass, more than three years behind schedule, will be opened next year and is expected to cut the journey time between Malaga and Seville to less than 1.5 hours.

It was an apparently simple project when it was put out to tender in 2019, but became more complicated than expected. Work on the rail link in the municipality of Almodóvar del Río started in June 2020, with an initial deadline of just 20 months, meaning it should have been finished by March 2022. Whilst the project has not yet been completed, the work is in the final phase.

Zoom

Spain's transport minister Óscar Puente has made this one of his key projects for Andalucía, and last week, during a meeting with the minister of public works, Rocío Díaz, committed that high-speed trains between Malaga and Seville will be able to travel in one hour and 35 minutes from 2025. The current journey time is one hour and 55 minutes.

Following the meeting, SUR has contacted the transport minister's office to confirm a precise date, however they declined to comment further. Currently, signalling and railway safety work is being carried out, which will take several months. Once work is finished, tests required by the state railway safety agency will need to be carried out before the bypass can officially be opened.

The delay was mainly due to the need to carry out a modification to improve drainage under the new tracks, due to how close it was to a stream that flows into the Guadalquivir. An unforeseen diversion of a high-voltage line also impacted the project's delay.