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ARCHIVED - Mediterranean Corridor rail connection between the Region of Murcia and Almeria delayed until at least 2027
Murcia campaigners for the inter-region link have condemned the latest 12-month delay
The problem-riddled Mediterranean Corridor railway connection between the Region of Murcia and Almería has been delayed yet again until at least 2027, a year later than planned.
According to Diego Lorente, General Director of AVE, the business organisation behind the platform #QuieroCorredor, (I Want the Corridor), the railway service will not reach Almería until for at least five years, and its extension to Algeciras will have to wait until 2030.
Under the slogan "The Region of Murcia can't wait any longer", the QuieroCorredor campaigners made up of employers' associations from the autonomous communities through which the Mediterranean Corridor runs, have condemned the latest delay and erected a giant banner on the façade of the Enrique Roca de Nueva Condomina expressing their frustration.
They are warning that the current pace of the works will not allow the project to meet the planned deadlines, which envisaged the completion of the railway link in 2026, after multiple setbacks.
And in a further blow, the Cercanías line to Lorca and Águilas, which has been out of service since October 1, will be cut.
The General Director of AVE this week acknowledged that the urban section of the Mediterranean Corridor as it passes through Lorca is particularly complicated "due to the obstacles that the new route will have to overcome".
At the end of this year or early 2023, the high-speed line from Madrid via Monforte del Cid, Alicante, is expected to reach the Murcia Region. Adif has already started tests on the section from Beniel to Murcia, which will take months, although it is expected to be completed before the end of 2022.
The section from Monforte to Murcia, which will be completed in the coming months, is part of the Mediterranean Corridor, but according to Diego Lorente, there are still bottlenecks in the connection between the region and the French border.
Lorente referred specifically to the La Encina junction, the construction of which will delay the Algeciras connection with Scandinavia and Eastern Europe until at least 2025.
The extension of the Mediterranean Corridor to Cartagena is also pending.
"We are concerned about the pace of the works. We were told that in 2024 the Region of Murcia would be connected to the French border and in 2026, Almeria, but at the rate they are going, the deadlines will not be met," said Lorente.
According to his calculations, the railway connection between the Region and France will not be finished until at least mid-2025.
He believes the construction of the projects underway may be deliberately delayed, adding that "the real situation of the works in progress will be known next July", when the QuieroCorredor platform will make public the last report on the state of each of the stretches included in the route from Algeciras to the French border.
President of Murcia, López Miras, has demanded the central government complete the Mediterranean Corridor to the Region "as soon as possible" and, "specifically, to Cartagena".
"If it does not reach the Region and Cartagena, it will not be Mediterranean," he said, adding that, "although the deadlines announced are not going to be met, it is essential that they are accelerated as much as possible". He also stressed that the Corridor "is essential for the development, progress and growth of the Spanish Levante".
Meanwhile, the president of the Croem regional employers' association, José María Albarracín, expressed his concern about the delay in "the sections that have not yet been put out to tender, awarded or executed", such as the Lorca section, which will mean that the completion of the Mediterranean Corridor to Almería will continue to be delayed.
Now read: Cartagena marks off 2km of green belt in 3.6m-euro project to join Canteras and San Jose Obrero
Image: #QuieroCorredor
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