British tourists to Spain will soon be able to travel even faster between two of their favourite cities.
Spain’s national railways are investing heavily in new infrastructure as they seek to modernise the network.
Adif, the state-owned railway infrastructure manager, will invest £20 billion between 2022 and 2026.
That is nearly three times bigger than the entire GDP of Monaco.
More than half of this amount will go to the conventional network, commuter trains, and freight.
Andalusia is one Spanish region that has promised major network improvements but has failed to deliver so far.
Plans to build a bypass on the Malaga to Seville line that would cut out Cordoba and speed up the journey by 20 minutes have progressed at a snail’s pace – until recently.
The Almodóvar rail bypass was originally put out to tender in 2018 and was supposed to be completed in 2020.
The new line will cut down journey times between Malaga and Seville from one hour and 55 minutes to just one hour and 35 minutes.
However, work only started on the link in June 2020 and the deadline for its completion was pushed back to March 2022.
Despite further delays, the £23 million line is now expected to be finally completed in 2025.
Last week, Spain’s transport minister, Óscar Puente, met with his colleague Rocío Díaz, the minister of public works.
After the meeting, the ministers confirmed that the bypass would be operational next year.
The extension is only 1.8 kilometres long, but it required modifications to the route of the Alcázar de San Juan-Cádiz Iberian line for approximately one kilometre.
Half of the £23 million was spent laying new track, while the other fifty percent was spent constructing traffic control, signalling, and telecommunications facilities.
The delay in the line’s completion was mainly caused by the need to improve drainage under the new tracks due to their proximity to a stream that flows into the Guadalquivir.