This is the age of Majorca´s train

Over the next three years, the Balearic government is to invest 17'000 million pesetas on improving Majorca's railway service. The huge investment package was announced by Balearic Chief Minister Francesc Antich yesterday during an official visit to the new line being laid from Inca to Sa Pobla. Providing the 2'000 million peseta railway expansion project is on track, the new link should be open by December 27. According to engineers and the Ministry for Public Works, construction work on the line should be completed by December 15, in just over two weeks time, but work on the protective wall along the Inca industrial estate will not be finished until the following week. Antich used yesterday's visit to stress his government's commitment to investing and developing the public transport sector. Apart from the 2'000 million which has been spent on the Inca to Sa Pobla line, the government will be investing a further 15'000 million on expanding the Majorcan railway service. Antich also announced yesterday that by the end of this year or early 2001, the impact and viability studies on the proposed line extension from Sa Pobla to Alcudia will have been completed. But the government's plans for the railway stretch beyond linking Palma to Alcudia by rail. Before the end of this legislature, Antich said he wants to have the completed reports on the new lines from Palma to the University and a rail link between Palma airport and Manacor.