Malaga Cercanias suburban rail

[cphilb]

There are currently proposals to put the N340 highway in a tunnel in Malaga city centre near the port (approx 1.8km in length from near the river to close to the Bullring). This is to free up space on the surface for pedestrians. Part of the proposals include building subterranean car parks and an underground bus station. This will cause years of disruption if it goes ahead but I personally agree with the concept.
My concern is that it seems to me that they haven't considered including the option of extending the Cercanias lines underground at the same time. There are long term aspirations to extend the Cercanias line from it's current terminus at Alameda as far as El Palo and Rincon de Victoria. This would, if it happens, follow an almost identical path as the proposed subterranean highway.
If the road goes ahead, and if later the Cercanias does finally decide to extend, that is going to be double the time and double the disruption for two separate lots of construction. They wouldn't have to build the railway immediately - just make provision for it when creating the road tunnel.
Does anyone know if combining the two projects has been considered and subsequently discounted for technical reasons? I appreciate the Cercanias extension is not an immediate prospect and has gone down the list of priorities but just building the road tunnel and underground bus stations without provision for the train doesn't make sense to me

 

[dutchflyer]

Was there/left there just 2 weeks ago.
There is also this ´METro´ in MLG-even if it uses normal tramcars. Same proposals for extending the tunnel for that one under the centre seem to have priority and looks to me 2 side-by-side are a bit superfluous.
More urgent for this short RENFE line is the also for years&years touted extension westward beyond Fuengirola to other sunny coast resorts.
Now moving the still fairly new BUSstation (allthough I got the impression it was a bit oversized for current services) underground in what is already touted as an integrated station also does not look as being the most urgent need. But perhaps freeing room for real estate is worth it?
(BTW-used the ALSA bus along the coast to Almeria-where there is also an ´integrated´ bus/train station-which simply means RENFE has a tiny office in the big new busstation. There was not even a ´bar´ (coffeeshop in Spain) anymore in it! Old train estacion was empty.

 

[cphilb]

Was there/left there just 2 weeks ago.
There is also this ´METro´ in MLG-even if it uses normal tramcars. Same proposals for extending the tunnel for that one under the centre seem to have priority and looks to me 2 side-by-side are a bit superfluous.
More urgent for this short RENFE line is the also for years&years touted extension westward beyond Fuengirola to other sunny coast resorts.
Now moving the still fairly new BUSstation (allthough I got the impression it was a bit oversized for current services) underground in what is already touted as an integrated station also does not look as being the most urgent need. But perhaps freeing room for real estate is worth it?
(BTW-used the ALSA bus along the coast to Almeria-where there is also an ´integrated´ bus/train station-which simply means RENFE has a tiny office in the big new busstation. There was not even a ´bar´ (coffeeshop in Spain) anymore in it! Old train estacion was empty.

The metro in Malaga is just about to be extended by two stops across the river into the city centre and should open in about August this year, Originally there were plans for at least Metro 4 lines in the city, one of which would have gone to El Palo. These plans were cut back due to financial constraints. Line 2 is still due to be extended underground northwards by about 4 stops to the new hospital being built (and past my flat) after the current extension work into the centre is finished later this year. Projected finish of this extension is 2027. The extension to El Palo was superseded by the plans to extend the "Cercanias Litoral" first to Rincon de Victoria and eventually to Nerja. These plans are still current, although well down the list of priorities, and i think it is a real shame that the opportunity to make some sort of provision for this possible extension in the current road tunneling plans is not being planned - to the best of my knowledge. I appreciate the cercanias extension in the opposite direction to Marballa and then Estepona has priority and the finance is still being sought to build it.
The new proposed underground bus station will be in the port
On a brighter note, it has been announced that money has been found to restart the mothballed tramway between Velez Malaga and Torre Del Mar so hopefully this will soon be back in operation. Curiously one of the reasons for this is that it would give a connection to the planned Cercanias extension i mentioned above