Taking the train straight to the plane
New underground railway station for the Malaga-Fuengirola C-1 line at the airport’s Terminal 3 last Friday officially opened by the authorities.
That long walk, often with heavy suitcases, to find the train station after landing at Malaga Airport is a thing of the past. Trains on the C-1 Malaga-Fuengirola Cercanías line now stop at the new underground station just 30 metres from the new Terminal 3. The need to take the railway line underground at the airport arose when plans for the second runway were made. This has led to the creation of two new underground stations, the one at Terminal 3 and another in the Guadalhorce industrial estate. The former airport cargo stop no longer exists.
At the moment, there is only a single track running through the new tunnel, but when the second track comes into service the frequency of the Cercanías trains will be increased to one every 20 minutes instead of every half hour. Then journey time between the city’s María Zambrano AVE station and the airport will be just 15 minutes which will significantly improve access to Malaga Airport by public transport from other provinces such as Cordoba and Seville. In the other direction journey time between the airport and Fuengirola is just half an hour.
The authorities’ aim is to encourage the use of the train to get to the airport and improve on the seven per cent of passengers who currently use this form of transport. Rail was already the fastest growing form of transport to the airport, increasing by 53% between 2005 and 2008.
An investment of some 193 million euros has allowed the construction by using a tunnel boring machine for the new 4.1 kilometre long railway tunnel. The line is electrified by rigid power lines supplied by a new substation at the railway workshops in Los Prados.
At the moment, access from the terminal to the new station is not quite complete as the footbridge that will lead directly to Departures cannot be completed until the old railway lines have been removed. For the time being, all passengers using the new station have to access the terminal building via arrivals. It is expected that the removal of the old lines will be completed on September 23rd.
The new airport station was officially opened last Friday by the Secretary of State for Transport, Concepción Gutiérrez. She was accompanied by the Mayor of Malaga, Francisco de la Torre along with the presidents of Renfe and Aena. Gutiérrez described the airport as southern Spain’s “great inter modal centre” and stressed the strategic importance of the facilities. The Secretary of State went on to announce an increase in the number of airlines operating from the Malaga terminals and called for greater coordination between the Cercanías and AVE rail services and the airlines themselves.
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