The tunnel necessary to connect the Luceros station, the end of the route since it was inaugurated in 2010, with the Alicante railway station was drilled many years ago, as many years as the underground parking on Avenida de la Estación has been in operation, since it runs through below. But the economic crisis put an end to the large intermodal station project that had been designed (AVE-TRAM-Buses) and travelers still have to walk the route that separates the Plaza de Luceros from the train.
During its mandate, the Botànic government committed to completing this project. The electoral future has wanted it to be the government of Carlos Mazón, in whose Transport organization chart several people linked to the original TRAM project, whose 20 years have been commemorated today, have reappeared, who must now take back the reins of the project.
Mazón did not want to provide specific deadlines this morning, but he stressed that the ball is in the central government’s court: “It cannot be that we have spent eight years with the project to connect Luceros with the Renfe station and that we are still like this,” he lamented, and has asked the Government for “speed” to authorize permits related to the land adjacent to this infrastructure.
After the tribute in which Damián Uclés was recognized as one of the promoters of the Alicante TRAM, Mazón has insisted that Alicante will see how investments in infrastructure increase. The president has defended that in Alicante it costs us much more to get things, but when we do we show that we deserved it, as happened with the airport or the AVE.”
Among these future investments, when asked by journalists, he reiterated that “Elche is going to have TRAM”, since he stressed that it was an “electoral commitment” and this city “deserves the tram.” Questioned about the implementation of the TRAM in towns such as Sant Joan d’Alacant or Mutxamel, he stated that “there is a project and there is an intention” to carry it out in a coordinated manner with the town councils.
The president has highlighted the legacy of José Ramón García Antón, councilor who promoted both the anti-irrigation works and the TRAM, the two public works carried out in the city in recent years, who in his opinion knew how to combine two qualities that are often considered opposite. , thanks to his status as a “pramatic visionary”.
Mazón has made the trip from El Campello station to the TRAM d’Alacant workshops in the same town, where he has visited the facilities and received an explanation of the evolution of technology and wagons in these 20 years.
The Alicante TRAM was launched on August 15, 2003, making Alicante the first city in Spain to have an electrified light rail service with high performance and quality standards. It consists of a network with four lines in a transportation system that combines the use of trains and trams through the same infrastructure. Since its commissioning, it has transported 138,520.360 million people. In 2022 it will exceed 13.5 million travelers.
