Malaga province's PP mayors feel 'cheated' by central government's promises regarding transport issues
Despite some agreements being reached with PSOE leaders in Madrid, they have highlighted "more delays and breakdowns on the trains, more traffic jams and ever-increasing toll road prices"
One year after the meeting held between Spain's central government, the Junta de Andalucía's regional government and the local town halls of Malaga province, which addressed transport challenges and issues, the mayors of the right-wing PP party have said that they feel "cheated". According to them, PM Pedro Sánchez's left-wing PSOE administration is not keeping the promise to advance the agreed projects faster.
The mayors compared the meeting from a year ago to a "performance" and said that, despite the agreements, there are "more delays and railway breakdowns, more traffic jams and continuously increasing toll prices".
Spokesperson and PP president for the province Patricia Navarro demanded that the minister of transport - Óscar Puente - put more effort into solving the mobility challenges that Malaga is experiencing. According to Navarro and the mayors, the province is neglected by the central government.
Demands
The demands include improvements in the railway system, prevention of hours-long delays and an increase in the number of short-distance trains, especially to the airport. In addition, the PP stated that the project for the creation of a coastal railway has not advanced beyond the announcement of the tender, which is not due until next year. "At the rate that the government is going, the construction project will start in at least a decade," said the mayors.
Improving access from the A-7 motorway to towns, creating reversible lanes during rush hour and weekends on the eastern ring road of the city, adding a third lane from Malaga to the Axarquía and applying discounts on the AP-7 toll road are the main road-related demands of the mayors from the PP.
As for Malaga Airport's expansion plans, the PP denounced the late response of the central government, seeing as this facility is already dangerously close to reaching its full capacity.
For this reason, the PP is planning a series of motions to demand that the province's services and infrastructure receive governmental investment and attention.
