The government announced this morning in the Senate that an 86 million euro tender to build a further 12,2 km stretch of AVE high speed railway between Pulpí and Cuevas del Almanzora will be issued in October.
It’s pure propaganda ahead of next years elections, but welcome none the less, I suppose.
The Almeria – Murcia line is divided up into many different section. The Cabrera tunnel section is finished, as is the Sorbas – Los Gallardos bit, in all at a cost of about a billion euros.
The rest, isn’t, and won’t be, as there is no EU funding for the project until at least 2020.
But due to pressure from the area, the government has grudgingly agreed to finance – if a contract is ever signed – the smallest stretch of the uncompleted bits in Almería.
If you look at the map above, it’s an interesting selection.
Murcia has been promised the connection, and that’s going ahead at the moment. And in theory, the line will then be pushed down to Lorca. The bit they’ve selected here is the first bit inside Almería (leaving a massive gap between the border and Lorca), but it’s 100% Almería. It’s also an uninhabited bit that shouldn’t annoy too many people – the Cuevas – Vera bit would involve tearing up Garrucha and Puerto Rey, as well as the station and all the rest of it.
What’s more, this bit of the line will only be single line, the bit already finished is double line. So that means the penny pinching now forces the entire line to be single line.
Still, it’s something. Not much, but something.