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I. LILLO
MALAGA. MALAGA.
Friday, 18 February 2022
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It is one of those things that nearly everyone in the world of infrastructure knows and refers to at some time, although it has never been officially stated. Until now, that is.
Now we can say, without fear of being wrong, that Malaga's local train service is one of the most 'profitable' in Spain, in the sense that it needs less money from the State than most, bearing in mind that all of them make a loss.
Seventy-five per cent of the costs are covered by fares, which is a much higher percentage than in Madrid (69%) and Barcelona (49%) and light years ahead of other cities such as Valencia (30%) and Seville (22%).
These figures have been obtained from a report into public spending on transport infrastructure in 2019, which was produced by the Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF), and the Railway Observatory in Spain's 2019 report (MITMA-OFE).
From these documents, José Alba, a civil engineer who runs the ARCS engineering consultancy and has participated in some of the biggest infrastructure projects in Malaga province, has carried out an analysis which confirms how important this means of transport is for territorial structuring.
To start with, the document highlights that the population in the metropolitan area of influence of Malaga city grew by around 65 per cent between 1998 and 2020 (and by 36 per cent in the province as a whole), and the most effective way for these inhabitants to move around has been the local 'cercanías' railway service. This form of transport has the best relationship between capacity and running costs, far more so than the bus services.
"These increases in population are shaping a city-region which, in fact, encompasses the Costa del Sol, a good part of La Axarquía, the lower Guadalhorce Valley, inland villages and Malaga city, with more than 30 municipalities and around a million and a half current residents with a shared future and objectives. The internal relationships between these populations and, particularly, with Malaga, are a key element in the structuring and functioning of the city-region," explains Alba.
Despite this, Malaga is the city with the shortest Cercanías rail network in relation to its population, and it is, along with Cadiz, the one with the lowest number of inhabitants served, at 57.4 per cent, far behind Madrid (91.4), Barcelona (89.8) and even places where far fewer people use this form of transport, such as Valencia (60.4) and Seville (67).
This means that Malaga, despite having fewer trains a day (130), handles far more passengers (31,500). The 11.85 million users in 2019 led to a revenue of 18.95 million euros.
Malaga is the hub with more passengers in relation to the provincial population and the available rail network, behind only Madrid and Barcelona. It also obtains more revenue per user in relation to the network, once again only behind Spain's two most important cities, and three times those of Valencia and six times Seville.
As for the way the use of the Cercanías rail service has evolved, in the decade from 2009 to 2019 demand grew by almost 42 per cent, the biggest percentage increase in the country. In Madrid it rose by 13 per cent and in Barcelona by eight. Due to all of this, the degree to which the operating costs are covered in Malaga is triple that of other cities such as Seville, and more than double that of Valencia. The deficit covered by the government on behalf of Malaga is the lowest in Spain.
Despite the positive statistics, the province suffers from a clear disadvantage compared with Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia, where investment plans have been developed for years to extend and improve networks and services at a total cost of 12.4 billion euros (according to AIReF).
Meanwhile, the Malaga network only has a double-width track on 20 per cent of its 70 kilometres, and this has a serious impact on the capacity of the system. On the Malaga-Fuengirola line, only 45 per cent of the track is double-width.
In addition, the existing Cercanías railway only serves part of the resident and visiting population on the Costa del Sol and in the Malaga metropolitan area, leaving places such as Marbella (160,000 residents) and Vélez-Málaga (80,000 residents) with no service, as well as others including Rincón de la Victoria, Estepona and Alhaurín de la Torre, each of which have a resident population of around 50,000. In total, this applies to more than 400,000 people
The present conditions mean it will be impossible for the railway to compete with the roads in terms of travelling times when the line is eventually extended beyond Fuengirola.
"Malaga's local services are insufficient, and they are the most efficient in all of Spain, so those are circumstances which more than justify the need for immediate attention," says José Alba.
"Today, Malaga is at a crossroads which needs important decisions to be adopted without too much delay. The system has covered some of its needs (but by no means all of them and no more than other places), but it is affected by the implantation of new populations which mean that the present services are starting to prove insufficient, and this is something that affects Malaga to a greater extent than it does other provinces in general," he says.
In order for Malaga to have services which are in line with its present needs as soon as possible and to cope with the growth of the metropolitan area, civil engineer José Alba says in his report that the Cercanías rail service should be considered an essential feature of the Malaga city-region.
The need to increase mobility on the western Costa del Sol are a prime objective because of the important number of journeys made, the size of the resident population and the number of visitors. Marbella, in the first place, and then Estepona would be two stages to develop, and the Guadalhorce Valley and the eastern Costa del Sol, where the growth is also significant, are the other areas which need to be addressed.
"The planning for these new lines should make the best possible use of what already exists and seek possible integration with the new railway network created for the high-speed AVE lines, but without high-speed facilities that would not be justified over short distances. In other words, aiming for a regional rather than a purely local view, which is what they are already doing in Catalonia, the Basque Country and Valencia," says Alba.
In order for Malaga to have services which are in line with its present needs as soon as possible and to cope with the growth of the metropolitan area, civil engineer José Alba says in his report that the Cercanías rail service should be considered an essential feature of the Malaga city-region.
The need to increase mobility on the western Costa del Sol are a prime objective because of the important number of journeys made, the size of the resident population and the number of visitors. Marbella, in the first place, and then Estepona would be two stages to develop, and the Guadalhorce Valley and the eastern Costa del Sol, where the growth is also significant, are the other areas which need to be addressed.
“The planning for these new lines should make the best possible use of what already exists and seek possible integration with the new railway network created for the high-speed AVE lines, but without high-speed facilities that would not be justified over short distances. In other words, aiming for a regional rather than a purely local view, which is what they are already doing in Catalonia, the Basque Country and Valencia,” says Alba.
Considering intermodal transportation models (feeder buses, parking at stations, bicycles and scooters on trains, fares combined with other means of transport etc.) is another extremely important element to meet all demands and to dissuade people from using private methods of transport.
The operation of these new services needs to be coordinated by or integrated with a transport consortium which has a wider scope than the one which exists at present, and this is something which is proposed by AIReF.
Considering intermodal transportation models (feeder buses, parking at stations, bicycles and scooters on trains, fares combined with other means of transport etc.) is another extremely important element to meet all demands and to dissuade people from using private methods of transport.
The operation of these new services needs to be coordinated by or integrated with a transport consortium which has a wider scope than the one which exists at present, and this is something which is proposed by AIReF.
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