€150m Manacor-Arta rail link delayed until 2012

PASSENGERS hoping to take advantage of they new €150 million train line linking Manacor with Arta will have to wait for now. At the end of March 2010 a plaque was placed in Arta station marking the beginning of the project to build the line, dubbed tram-train, which covers a distance of 36 kilometres.

At the time officials announced the new service would come into operation between May and September this year. However, in the works have become delayed, and Serveis Ferroviaris de Mallroca (SFM) sources told suggest it will be not be completed until the end of 2012 at the earliest, Spanish daily Diario Mallorca reports.

The same sources also said it could be delayed until 2013 funding,  payments and credit facilities are not improved. SFM engineers have confirmed ground work for the Manacor-Arta line have been completed.

This leaves 70 per cent of the structural work as well as the laying of the tracks still outstanding. Mayors of the Llevan area expressed their concern a few weeks ago about payment problems slowing down the rail works.Regarding the annual maintenance cost of the new rail link – once completed – SFM calculates it will be in the region of €1 million.

Around 850,000 passengers a year are expected to use the new line. SFM is currently working on rail projects to Cala Rajada, Porto Cristo and the towns to the south of the island, in the Migjorn area.