The closure of the final section of the high-speed railway route between Madrid and Malaga will continue at least until the end of April, which means delaying the previous opening date, which was scheduled for March 23. In this way, there will be more than three months without a direct high-speed connection between both cities.
The president of the infrastructure manager Adif, Pedro Marco de la Peña, indicated this morning to the media that the work to restore traffic, after the landslide on February 5 near Antequera (Málaga), will be extended for a few more weeks. Renfe will therefore continue to be the only operator with service between both cities thanks to its alternative bus transportation plan.
Traffic on the Madrid-Andalusia axis was previously interrupted between Villanueva de Córdoba and the city of Córdoba due to infrastructure reform tasks following the accident on January 18 in Adamuz (Córdoba). A few days before the reopening, at the beginning of last month it caused the collapse of a slope that has led to the interruption of the line from Antequera to Málaga.
The aforementioned cut forces travelers to travel by road between Malaga and the Antequera-Santa Ana station, to continue the trip by train from there to Madrid. Previously, bus travel was required in the province of Córdoba due to the aforementioned accident.
The impossibility of the Iryo and Ouigo high-speed services reaching Malaga, as well as the limitation for Renfe trains, thus reaches the Holy Week period, essential for the Andalusian tourism sector. The Junta de Andalucía warned that this connection was not reestablished during Holy Week, which begins on March 29.
