Cross border tram plan cranked up a gear
Option would cost a fraction of the elusive train to link the provinces of Alicante and Valencia
HALF a century after the Gandia-Oliva-Denia train was disbanded, plans are set to be drawn up for a cheaper alternative – and the regional government is determined they will become reality.
A tramline covering the 32-kilometre stretch – reaching the rail network between Benidorm and Denia, and the train link from Gandia to Valencia – could be workable even if the national government continues to ignore funding requests, according to regional president Ximo Puig.
A tram for the 2030s
Whichever way Spaniards voted in general elections, no central government has ever assigned more than €100,000 a year in any budget to the much-missed rail connection – and in most cases, nothing at all.
At the current rate of funding, it would take until at least the 31st century before the transport connection, which would provide an unbroken
link along the coast from Alicante to Valencia cities, was in place.
Now, regional public-sector transport company Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat (FGV) has been officially awarded
the job of plotting a tram system instead.
Compared with the huge cost of the train, a tram system would be comparatively cheaper, with an estimated cost of around €250 million and would take five or six years to build.
The initial idea is to create a rail link from Alicante to Gandia, where passengers would then change to the train for Valencia.
Mobility and public works bosses in Valencia stress that in the past 50 years, this densely-populated stretch of coastline across the provincial border has lost massive amounts of investment, since the lack of any transport network has long put businesses off setting up in the area, as well as being unattractive to some tourists due to the impossibility of getting to the airports without access to a car or taxi.
Department head Rebeca Torró says the coast between Valencia and Alicante cities is of ‘maximum social, financial and environmental importance’, meaning a tram system is ‘essential’.
She says the region cannot continue to wait for the return of the train, which was shut in February 1974 amid promises of major works to provide a new, improved and faster service, and has not reopened since.
By the 50th anniversary, Sra Torró says she wants to see real progress made.