Spain’s Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, has presented the proposal for Granada urban rail integration, an action that will transform the mobility in the city and its metropolitan area including the heavy rail system by improving permeability, promoting the deployment of green areas and routes for pedestrians and bicycles and reducing noise pollution.
According to the minister, the integration is the “best option for the city” since it is the most viable from a technical and financial point of view and offers greater certainty in its execution, and could become a reality in seven or eight years. “We have been working for some time to put forward a proposal that is beneficial for citizens and that we can also begin to deploy imminently,” the minister explained.
The proposal would allow action to be taken on more than 2 km of line and more than 200,000 square metres of surface area, adapting the route with individualised solutions for the four areas of intervention consisting of the surface integration and track covering.
“We must rethink the relationship between the train and the city and assume that the railway is just another urban piece that we have to live with,” Óscar Puente said.
The Ministry of Transport is now opened to receive the proposals of the Junta de Andalucía and the Granada City Council, taking into account that it is essential to reach a financing agreement in order to move forward with Granada urban rail integration project.
Considering some variant, the rail integration can be initiated in the short term with the tendering of the station and rail track projects, since it is not necessary to carry out informative studies or build the Moreda bypass in the same time frame, two necessary milestones in the event that other alternatives were chosen, such as an underground route.
The planned works have a much smaller impact on mobility and road traffic and none on trains, as they are compatible with railway operations, and have much shorter execution times, so the integration could be completed in 2031 – 2032.
On the other hand, if the underground route is chosen, the work would not be completed until 2039 and during the execution of the works the high-speed service would have to be suspended or a temporary station would have to be built on the outskirts, in addition to closing the Málaga road for three years and the Camino de Ronda road for nine months in each direction.
Soft integration also requires a limited economic effort that can be assumed by all the administrations involved – Adif, City Council and Junta de Andalucía.
According to the minister, the integration is valued at around EUR 230 million, while the cost of the underground line is estimated at around EUR 760 million, of which the Regional Government and the City Council would have to contribute with EUR 446 million, applying the principles set out in the Mobility Law, which is being processed in the Cortes Generales.
Granada urban rail integration project consists of four areas of activities
One of the proposals presented by the Minister Óscar Puente covers interventions at the station and the Barrio de Los Pajaritos areas. The station is in the heart of the city, 3.5 km from the Alhambra and 1.5 km from the cathedral. The objective is to preserve it in its current location, solving the problems of capacity and flow of passengers inside and regenerating the station environment with, among other things, the creation of a new urban park. Thus, the passengers’ building is to be extended and renovated, respecting the historic building. The objective is to convert it into the access gate to the city with the creation of landscaped roofs and a new panoramic façade that serves as a window to the Alhambra and Sierra Nevada. Bus bays will also be installed in contact with the University, promoting intermodality, and green areas will be created around the station, which in turn contributes to improving the whole of the Los Pajaritos neighbourhood.
The second area is the La Rosaleda neighbourhood where the route runs adjacent to Jesse Owens Street and has only two connection points between both sides of the railway, the Ronda path and the pedestrian walkway. In this area, the plan is to move the existing track 10 metres further, so that the free space on both sides of the route can be ensured and the work can be carried out without affecting railway traffic. The distance from the railway line to the houses will be complemented by a covering, on which a park will be laid out. In this way, the houses and the street will have a landscaped slope as an edge element.
The third area is the La Chana neighbourhood and a transversal permeability of the it is achieved through the underpass of Avenida de las Alpujarras and the streets Actriz Fabiana Laura and Washington Irving. The proposal is to create two green areas parallel to the railway with a double function: to create a visual and acoustic screen of the railway with respect to the city and to adapt the urban topography, improving the current crossings, as well as the creation of a new urban connection with the La Chana neighbourhood by continuing the Filólogo García Casares street by foot. It is proposed a vehicular and pedestrian crossing under 170 metres long and 4 metres high new viaduct as a continuation of Avenida de las Alpujarras street.
The fourth is the area of the crossing with the Málaga road where the intervention consists of the implementation of an urban walkway independent of the road, which connects the two sides of the railway.
The Granada urban rail integration project is part of the Government’s commitment to develop transport infrastructure and sustainable mobility in the Andalusia region, where EUR 2.5 billion actions are underway to continue improving its connectivity in the last six years. The railway is the mode in which the most notable advances have been recorded in the last six years and the way in which strong investment continues to be made as the cornerstone of the change in mobility that it is.
Since 2018, Granada has gone from railway isolation to high-speed access and is currently served by 182 trains a week that provide direct connections with Almería, Seville, Malaga, Cordoba, Madrid and Barcelona, among other cities. According to the Minister, a new S-730 train will arrive in the region, one of the most versatile of Renfe, which will allow increasing the frequencies to Granada to four, travelling from Almería to Madrid via Granada without transfers.
In the last six years, the investments in the Andalusian railway network amount to more than EUR 1.75 billion and works worth more than EUR 2.8 billion have been tendered, 1.5 times more than in the previous period.
These investments allow the works to be carried out on the Loja bypass, where three of its four sections are already completed or underway. And, in parallel, the project for the new station is still being drafted and progress is being made on the actions necessary to double the track between Archidona and Granada. The works are essential to reduce the connection times between Granada and Almería with Madrid and to improve the transversal railway mobility of the Andalusian railways as a whole.
In addition, with the entry into service of Almodóvar del Río bypass expected for 2028, the journey time on Granada – Seville route will be reduced by 20 minutes, bringing both capitals closer to just over 2 hours.
In September 2023, the President of Junta de Andalucía, Juanma Moreno, announced that the full integration of the railway in the city of Granada is an essential objective and has assured that the Andalusian Government is committed to work to develop and complete the project. At the same time, the province’s authorities have awarded the contract for the first extension of Southern expansion of Granada Metro and the works started in December 2023.
In addition, in April 2024, the of Junta de Andalucía launched the works for the 2 km second extension of the south expansion between the towns of Churriana de la Vega and Las Gabias with an investment of EUR 28.4 million.
The Granada Metro Southern extension will revitalise public transport in the city and will bring metro to more citizens and municipalities, improving the connections with Granada.
The project is financed with European Next Generation funds through an investment of more than EUR 87 million, of which EUR 28.4 correspond to the second section. In addition, eight new trains need to be acquired to serve the extensions and are estimated at EUR 40 million.
The entire Southern extension will run through the towns of Armilla, Churriana de la Vega and Las Gabias, with a length of 4.6 km of surface route and 7 new stops. The estimated annual demand of passengers is 2 million users per year.
Granada metro connects the main place of interest in the metropolitan area on a 16 km system, of which 17% runs underground, and the network is served by 26 stops and stations. The metro also provides access to heavy-rail system as well as to the bus services.
In 2023, Metro de Granada has reached its annual record figure for demand since its entry into service, with more than 14 million passengers transported. This number of passengers represents an increase of 28.1% compared to 2022 and 21% compared to 2019, the year before the pandemic and which marked the previous best record with 11.72 million users. Ten of the 26 stops and stations on the line account for 61% of the traffic, including the stops at Caleta, Armilla, Estación de Autobuses, Hípica, Albolote, Alcázar Genil and Palacio de Deportes.
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