The Plan to Move Alicante's Railway Line Away from the Sea

Alicante moves the railway away from the sea: decades of delay

Why is the train line between Alicante and Murcia still hugging the coast, cutting through a stretch of coastline that could host a first-rate promenade, and why is there not a single rail link reaching the airport? The answer, according to the accounts in this debate, is decades of public works falling behind schedule. The variant that moves the line away from the coast and takes it inland has already been awarded, according to one participant, along with the electrification of a corridor that still operates using diesel trains. The rest, for now, remains up in the air.

The railway variant that should have been completed decades ago

The plan involves diverting the current alignment, which borders the coast, into the interior and electrifying the entire corridor. According to one participant, this work should have been carried out in the first decade of the century. This delay, according to that same reading, would have cost the capital decades of economic and commercial loss.

The new alignment would include a tunnel to pass through the mountains separating the Alicante area from Altet, as well as a track triangle near the cemetery. One participant describes the current geometry as an "offshoot": from the central station, the tracks descend toward San Gabriel, where trains must reverse because it is a terminus that, they argue, should not even exist. The Murcia station closed half a century ago, and with it, the opportunity to have resolved the crossing with a simple Y.

Airport without station and Torrellano in limbo

The airport, expanded and rebuilt years apart, still lacks a railway stop. The idea of building a station next to the terminal was never part of the final project, and some recall that it should have been executed on the same day as the aerodrome's inauguration. In Torrellano, the disagreement is absolute: some defend that the stop will remain because it services Elche; others believe its disappearance is inevitable.

The Great Alicante that never materializes

Aside from the railway, another current pushes for integrating Alicante with Elche and the coast stretching from Torrevieja to Benidorm under a kind of Great Alicante. The distance between the two cities makes this fusion unviable without a macro-city, and the intermediate filling passes through either the Torrellano industrial park or the airport itself, according to another participant. Some argue that Villena, Elda, and Elche should move around 80,000 or 90,000 inhabitants to balance the Vinalopó and allow Alicante to reach a comparable size to Zaragoza.

Decades of accumulated delays, and the line that, when it finally moves, will have arrived too late even for the future platform.