Malaga Metro due to be running by 2014

THE Junta de Andalucia has announced that Malaga Metro will be a priority on the 2013 budget. 

The President, Jose Antonio Griñan, said that finishing the metro system in the city is the main project in the province. Work has been at a standstill for several months and there was uncertainty about how the project would be financed, but the Junta is confident that it is creating work for locals and will be completed ready for use by the end of 2013. 

Meanwhile, the mayor of Malaga, Francisco de la Torre, has said that plans to run part of the metro above ground in the city centre would not be good for Malaga. He also aid that if there is not enough money to take the metro underground, then it would be better to wait until the funds are available. The stretch which the Ministry of Public Works has suggested should be built above ground is between the Guadalmedina River (near El Corte Ingles) and La Malagueta (near the bullring) and would run along the Alameda and Paseo del Parque.

There are also plans to take the train as far as El Palo by 2016. The Ministry has promised that the metro will be open as far as the Maria Zambrano train station by the end of next year, and that the stretch to Guadalmedina would be open by the end of 2014.
De la Torre has said that he will have to study the proposal for running the metro above ground in depth, but that he doesn’t think it would be a positive step for Malaga.