Hello there.
I am a Spanish forumer, so I can help out with a bit of data.
Having travelled from Fuengírola to Malaga and back today it’s clear quite a lot of work has been done to double, perhaps straighten and certainly put track underground in various places.
That was done between 2001 and 2009.
The sections from Campamento Benítez (closed station) to La Colina, from El Pinillo to the eastern tunnel mouth of Arroyo de la Miel, and from Torremuelle to just before Torreblanca stations were doubled.
Also the stretch from Malaga María Zambrano "low level" (the main Malaga railway station) to Aeropuerto was doubled, and the stretches from María Zambrano to Los Prados and from Los Prados to Aeropuerto were put underground.
This was done with a two-fold purpose. One, to make room for the arrival of the high speed line to Malaga, and two, to allow an enlargement of the Malaga airport.
Does anyone have a history of the line?
The company which started the project of this line was called "The Malaga & Gibraltar Railway" (the name was in English). Need I say more?
It never came to fulfil its original goal of reaching the Rock or even La Linea. Then I think the company went broke before the works even started, and it was all carried out I think by a Belgian society, which opened in metric gauge the stretch from Malaga to Fuengirola. After the Spanish war (1936-1939), progressive nationalisation came, and the line fell in the hands of EFE (the narrow gauge equivalent to Renfe, which was later renamed Feve - and has ended up being merged with Renfe). By the late 1960, the line was becoming a bit strained, particularly in summer, as it couldn't cope with the rising number of passengers, so it was decided to re-gauge it to Iberian, which was done in 1975, including a new stretch from San Julian station (now closed, not far from Plaza Mayor) to Malaga Maria Zambrano and Malaga Centro Alameda stations (originally called Guadalmedina).
The original metric gauge line between San Julian and Malaga used to follow the coastline, and the original Malaga station was located right at the bus terminal of the old port, very close to Plaza de la Marina.
The Malaga to Fuengirola line is now one of the busiest commuter railway lines in Spain, definitely the busiest outside Madrid and Barcelona.
It is to be noted that the Malaga to Fuengirola line used to have two sister lines, built by a different company and closed in the late 1960s (iirc), which went from San Julian to Coin, and from Malaga to Velez-Malaga then Ventas de Zafarraya (including a stretch in rack railway -of which I think the section around Ventas de Zafarraya has been partially reopened as a tourist small gauge train). It really was a pity that these lines were closed, as now they would be quite busy.
Also one curiosity in that Benalmadena Arroyo de la Miel was left hand running where all other double track was right hand running.
At times Renfe does that. I really don't know why they do this. I seem to remember that this has not always been the case.
In short, the line is actually one of the most interesting ones around. It would take a lengthy essay to detail everything, but in short, this was supposed to be a much longer line reaching through to Algeciras and Cadiz.
I'm not sure they ever planned to build it as far as Cadiz.
That was a much more recent idea, which for now has been put to rest.
Not the section between Fuengirola and Algeciras though. There's the intention of building it. The problem is its cost, huge.
The entire elevated section through Los Boliches came in the 1970's, but I think the tunnels/cuttings between Los Boliches and Plaza Mayor date from the narrow gauge railway.
No, not all of them.
The Torreblanca tunnel was built in the 1970's, as they built a short new stretch to eliminate some narrow bends (and a level crossing? my memory's a bit hazy there).
At least one of the tunnels between Torreblanca and Torremuelle is new (you can tell the remains of an old viaduct heading in a different direction), and the twin single-tube tunnel had the old metric gauge then-abandoned tunnel (the one inland) regauged and reopened, while the tube that's closer to the sea is from the 1970's regauge plan.
The Torremolinos and Benalmadena urban tunnels are from the 1970's, and sadly in single track, they are the biggest bottlenecks on this line, as doubling them will be tremendously expensive. Torremolinos station used to be a street level station, right where it is now, but street level.
The section between Torremolinos and Malaga Central has seen quite a few changes since the 1970's - Plaza Mayor is a new stop, the Malaga Airport section only opened a few years ago, Malaga Maria Zambrano was completely changed with the arrival of the AVE,
San Julian station closed, Los Prados station closed too (the platforms on the Fuengirola line, not the ones on the Alora line), and Guadalhorce, Aeropuerto were put underground.
Also San Andres station was replaced by the underground (and British-sounding) Victoria Kent (the station was named after a Spanish politician and lawyer, which by the way, I reckon has no relation to the neighbouring quarter whatsoever - no nearby street or similar that I'm aware of).
Malaga-Centro was opened after the rest of the line.
No, it definitely wasn't opened much later than the rest of the regauged line... jjust one year after it was regauged - in 1976.
Torremolinos itself will be dramatically changed in the next couple of years, as it's completely unsuitable for use these days.
It won't, it's actually a bit of an upgrade, just €4 million. Escalators, lifts, higher platforms... Not much.
Until recently, trains were only at a 30 minute interval, but I think the airport extension allowed them to move to a 20 minute interval.
Not only, it was that and the doubling of the other sections that I mentioned.
About the future of the line, there are two competing schools of thoughts. The first one is that the commuter line should simply (well, not so simply) extended to Marbella while serving some of the large communities that have built up over the last 30 years along the coast. It would follow the coastal motorway, and serve the Costa Del Sol Hospital. If the existing commuter line is used, the line will probably never extend beyond Marbella as it wouldn't make sense: the journey time is already quite considerable between Fuengirola and Malaga, and it would be well over an hour between Malaga and Marbella. This would offer considerable relief for the existing coastal motorway, which is often jammed
The final goal is not Marbella, but Estepona, and then Algeciras. The question is in which century.
The other school of thought is that the existing commuter line to Fuengirola should remain unchanged, while a new line would extend to Marbella and Estepona via the interior toll motorway. The Costa Del Sol Hospital would still be served, and this line would be usable by the AVE high speed trains in the future. This would allow trains to travel quickly as it would be on a new route, and the interior path would mean that it wouldn't operate as a commuter train.
The current studies by Adif (the Spanish would-be equivalent to Network Rail) ar focussing only on a commuter line, the strectch in the study is Fuengirola-Marbella. There are two base routes, and intermediate versions of them, but all commuter rail. My favourute one is the coastal, obviously, as it is the one that will generate more passengers.
That said, this will still take decades, as the investment will be massive.
AND it will also require a quite extensive upgrade of the section between Aeropuerto and Fuengirola, with some passing loops and the doubling of the tunnels, as calling all stations from Marbella (not to say further away) would make travel times longer.
It will also require the rebuilding of the Los Boliches viaduct and station, and probably something at Torreblanca (the Torreblanca tunnel is very narrow, and there's no room to double as the area is quite built, so probably reopening the old narrow-gauge platform there could do).
As you can see, neither option is really favourable. The commuter railway needs to be extended so that places like Calahonda (home to a huge retired expat community) can be served, but also tourists want to be quickly able to access Marbella, Estepona, etc. Using the interior route would mean that the Costa Del Sol could be connected by high speed railway, which would cater for tourists willing to spend the premium needed to get quickly from Malaga Airport to their end destination. Yet the coastal route is also needed.
There's not much need of high speed rail in the Costa del Sol when you have a high speed line terminating at Malaga.
The real need there is commuter rail.
Side note: Fuengirola used to host Talgo trains that came from Madrid. As far as I know, Malaga Airport station is already adapted for use by the AVE too.
I'm not sure that it hosted Talgos? There certainly used to be Madrid to Fuengirola trains, but I think those were class 432 or 444 EMUs (Electrotren).
Yes, I think you're pretty much right. The Malaga terminus especially should be upgraded to twin tubes, especially as it will now connect to the Malaga Metro too.
The connection with the Malaga Metro exists at Malaga Maria Zambrano.
There's the plan of moving Malaga Centro station to Plaza de La Marina, where it will connect with the metro, which is an area that has room enough for at least four tracks. Malaga Centro is the worst bottleneck on the Malaga commuter rail network, because not only is it single track, which leaves little time to reverse, but its platforms are short (only 100 metres, when the modern Adif standards for cmmuter rail stations are 200 metres).
Personally, I think they should just double track the line to Fuengirola and build it onwards to Marbella, possibly with a terminus in San Pedro de Alcantara. It would allow Nueva Andalucia to also be served by the railway, and it could easily be changed into a metro-style service as line speeds simply aren't that high. I don't think speed is necessarily important on this line, but rather frequency.
The ultimate goal is and should be Algeciras. Count the population and the numbers are there. The problem's the money.
As a frequent visitor to Los Boliches I struggle with the idea of a tunnel - it would quite probably have to be a tad under sea-level/water table - very expensive! To say the least. As an idea it is not too bad - would doubling the existing elevated section be more expensive?
Of course not, but it would require a lengthy closure.
Even with the current 20 min services with the Civia stock it is very busy most of the year and even more so in the 'peak'. More euros for more doubling is required for a 15 min service - and perhaps even more if it was continued to Marbella. Probably a 10 min service for that.
Ideally there should be trains terminating at Mijas and semi-fast trains terminating at Marbella (or Estepona). If ever Algeciras is reached, those trains should be faster.
They have been talking about a railway to Estepona and Marbella for the last 20 years. Think all the plans have been dismissed as too expensive. Any update out there?
None for now, aside from the study on the routes under the former government.
The current one hasn't spoken about it yet... but the minister is from Valencia, so they are tweaking thinks on the side of the Costa Blanca, which has similar transports issues.
Would it be that expensive in the grand scheme of things? Doubling the existing elevated section would probably be a no-go with locals, particularly with Los Boliches already rather blighted by the view of the line there.
Another advantage to putting it in a tunnel would be connecting up the area around the fairgrounds with the sea, and getting rid of those horrible noise barriers along Paseo Jesús Santos Rein. It would only have to be about 1.5km of extra tunnel, so surely affordable when compared to the cost of building some of the LAV infrastructure in Andalucia.
Mind the gradient!