On Monday, the Balearic government's ministry of mobility announced that there will be three feasibility studies for extending the current rail network in Mallorca.
The minister, Josep Marí, held a meeting with the mayors of Arta, Manacor, Sant Llorenç and Son Servera at which the reopening of the Arta-Manacor line was discussed, as also was a connection to Cala Millor. He explained that 1,091,923 euros are to be spent on the feasibility studies, one of which will be the reopening plus the Cala Millor connection.
The other two are an extension from Palma to Llucmajor and Campos and from Sa Pobla to Alcudia. The feasibility studies will be put out to tender. Once awarded, the studies will take six months for the Alcudia and Campos projects and four months for the line in the east of Mallorca. In terms of feasibility, the main issue with the latter is the connection to Cala Millor; the Arta-Manacor line (the route) does in effect already exist.
Marí said that the government is committed to quality public transport and sustainable mobility. In recent years, it has made improvements to the rail infrastructure through electrification and service enhancements. He will this week also be meeting the mayors of Campos and Llucmajor and of Alcudia and Sa Pobla.
A reopening of the Arta-Manacor line was halted by the Partido Popular government of José Ramón Bauzá. This was on cost grounds at a time of financial crisis austerity measures. Both this project and the extension to Alcudia did at one point have Madrid funding. Where the Alcudia line was concerned, it was in any event shelved because agreement couldn't be reached on the route from Sa Pobla.
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Good to hear they're looking at this again. I suggested precisely this on MDB just recently (although I'm under no illusions that my comments had any influence whatsoever). While these lines are indeed badly needed, the much larger issue is direct links from the airport, as can be found at any major airport. They really should be considering (in addition to the already proposed tram line airport to plaça d'Espanya), a line from the airport to say, Inca, connecting the sa pobla (future Alcudia) and manacor (future -arta-cala millor) lines. And it occurs to me that the Llucmayor - Campos (+ possibly Santanyi connection) might be easier and less expensive to originate at the airport. The elephant in the room of course, is a formidable train station at the airport terminal. No small task. But november-march could facilitate a lot of that work without too much disruption. Probably would need to close a taxi and/or runway for a couple of months to get an underground tunnel built. Once that's in place, the rest of it could progress over time as required. No doubt taxi and bus transfer interests would strongly object to this. But if the government is serious about "sustainable tourism", then those interests should be balanced with that.
This would be great for Mallorca and is very much needed. Persuading a population that is used to travelling 'door to door' by car, to catch a train, might be a harder job.