It seems a contradiction, but the demand has its reason for being. The residents of the southern neighborhoods of Alicante, the closest to the industrial area of ??the port, have been demanding for decades that Adif remove the disused tracks that exist next to the old Murcia station, and that the Government execute the variant of Torrellano so that the section that is still active, from the San Gabriel stop, also disappears and the commuter train that connects Alicante and Murcia runs through the interior, thus also facilitating the desired rail connection with the airport.
It happens that the Ministry of Transport is advancing in the execution of the Mediterranean Corridor and cannot wait for the Torrellano variant to be carried out if it does not want that project to be stalled in Alicante. The road that runs along the coast needs to be electrified and adapted to international width, according to various Ministry sources, on a “provisional” basis.
The problem is that, after so many years of broken promises, the area’s active neighborhood associations don’t trust it. And they have launched a campaign to collect signatures, in person and through a well-known Internet platform, demanding that the Torrellano variant be undertaken without further delay. And during the last elections, and after the new City Council was constituted, they have found the support of all the municipal groups.
“In 2003, twenty years ago, an agreement was signed between all the administrations involved, where they committed themselves in writing to the removal of the roads”, argue the residents, some roads on which, in addition, there have been several deadly hit-and-runs “As a result of this agreement, the Torrellano Bypass project was carried out, and in 2011 the execution of the works was about to be put out to tender, but due to political decisions, it was finally paralyzed and the project was stored in a drawer”.
In addition, the residents demand “the immediate disposal of the land occupied by the unused roads next to Casa Mediterráneo and the Parque del Mar, in the heart of the city, and which have been waiting for decades to be transferred to the city of Alicante to allow the enhancement and urban development of a highly degraded environment, and which now, as one more consequence of the passage of the Mediterranean Corridor along the coast, they intend to transform into a siding for kilometer-long freight trains in the heart of the city”.
The residents’ petition reached a thousand signatures during the first day, and the campaign has the support of business, commercial and social groups from all over the city, in addition to arousing a political consensus that is rare in Alicante.
“The electrification of the coastal roads for the passage of the Mediterranean Corridor is imminent, and if we are not able to stop it, Alicante will cease to be the friendly and attractive city that it aspires to be, and will be a gray and sad city with a large part of its maritime façade occupied by numerous convoys of freight trains that will take us away from the sea forever”, affirms the platform.
“We are not against the Mediterranean Corridor,” they add, “but the solution is not to destroy a city for not having carried out the works that they promised to do 20 years ago. The solution is to speed up the work as much as possible to start up the Torrellano Bypass project as soon as possible, and if the Government of Spain wants it, it can be done”.
In his opinion, “it is a project that is finished in the absence of adapting it to the new requirements. Alicante deserves it. It is not fair that the few investments that the Government of Spain makes in Alicante are to destroy our most valuable heritage, which is our coast. We only ask for a little respect and that our city and what we can contribute with the right investments be valued,” the manifesto concludes.
