Cercanías Murcia/Alicante
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (April 2010) |
| Cercanías Alicante | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Renfe | |||
| Locale | Alicante, Murcia, Elche | ||
| Transit type | Commuter rail | ||
| Number of lines | 3 | ||
| Number of stations | 26 | ||
| Annual ridership | 3,730,000 (2017)[1] | ||
| Operation | |||
| Operator(s) | Cercanías | ||
| Technical | |||
| System length | 202 km (126 mi) | ||
| |||
Cercanías Murcia/Alicante is a
. It runs through 200 km of railways with a total of 26 stations.Lines
The
| Line | Route | Distance |
|---|---|---|
 |
Alicante - Elche - Murcia del Carmen | 76 km |
 |
Murcia del Carmen - Lorca - Águilas | 117 km |
 |
Alicante - University of Alicante - San Vicente Centre | 8 km |
Line C-1
The railroad linking the cities of Alicante and Murcia was built in 1885. It passes Elche through a tunnel of 4 km in length, which was built in 1970s, eliminating over twenty level crossings in the city,[2] and includes 2 underground stops Elche-Carrús/Elx-Carrús and Elche-Parque/Elx-Parc. The average travel time between Alicante and Murcia is 1 hour and 20 minutes.
Since June 15, 2008 trains no longer stop at Beniaján, Torreagüera, and Los Ramos-Alquerías.
Line C-2
One train per hour circulates on line C-2 between Murcia and Lorca, with only three daily trains running to Águilas. The average travel time between Murcia and Lorca is 50 minutes and 1 hour 50 minutes between Murcia and Águilas.
Line C-3
The railroad between
Future expansion
Alicante Airport rail link
The new terminal of
Tren de la Costa
The Tren de la Costa proposes a new rail line linking Valencia to Alicante via coastal towns as an extension of Cercanías Valencia's C-1, into which a study was produced in 2016.[5]
Torrevieja branch
A 27.3 km (17.0 mi) branch line from San Isidro–Albatera–Catral station to Torrevieja was formerly in operation from 1884 to 1986.[6]
Since the 1990s reopening of the line has been proposed, as since the line's closure the town has become an important tourist destination.[7]
In 2020, the University of Alicante proposed a branch from a new location – Orihuela – to Torrevieja serving stations at Bigastro-Jacarilla and San Miguel de Salinas.[8] The cost of the line was estimated to be between €210 and €270 million for a single-track line capable of speeds of 200 km/h (120 mph), with ridership of 1.1 million expected annually.
Further proposals
Line C-3 is due to expand from Sant Vicente Centre using the existing line to Madrid as far as Villena, with the potential to add 2,000 daily rail passengers to the network.[9]
The existing rail line from
Proposals exist to link the future Elche–Matola AVE station (part of the Madrid–Levante high-speed rail network) to the Cercanías network by way of a new 4 km (2.5 mi) line south of Elche, at a projected cost of €32 million.[11] This would allow services through Elche city centre to terminate at the AVE station.
References
- ^ "Los trenes de cercanías van casi vacíos y apenas superan la cifra de usuarios de hace diez años". 11 June 2018. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
- ^ "El túnel que cambió Elche". Diario Información (in Spanish). 14 October 2018. Retrieved 3 April 2020.
- ^ "Los accesos a El Altet, la variante de Benissa y unir la A-31 con la A-35, las inversiones de Fomento en 2019". Alicante Plaza (in Spanish). 14 January 2019. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
- ^ "Contract for first phase of Murcia-Alicante Airport rail link put out to tender". Murcia Today. 28 August 2019. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
- ^ "ESTUDIO INFORMATIVO DE LA LÍNEA FERROVIARIA VALENCIA - ALICANTE (TREN DE LA COSTA) - FASE II" (PDF). Ministerio de Fomento. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
- ^ "Spanish Railway » Blog Archive » Albatera á Torrevieja". 2016-06-17. Archived from the original on 2016-06-17.
- ^ "The wait goes on for the Torrevieja Railway". www.theleader.info. 15 May 2019.
- ^ "Así es la propuesta de unir en tren Orihuela y Torrevieja: dos paradas intermedias y frecuencia de 30 minutos". Alicante Plaza. 11 November 2020. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
- ^ "El nuevo Cercanías Alicante-Villena doblará el número de pasajeros". lasprovin ias.es. Retrieved 14 March 2019.
- ^ "IU-Verdes Cartagena exige un servicio de trenes de cercanías a Murcia "de calidad y en cantidad". Europa Press. 17 December 2013.
- ^ "El Gobierno aprueba el Estudio Informativo de la conexión ferroviaria de la nueva estación del AVE con el centro de Elche". www.a24.es. 5 November 2020. Retrieved 21 December 2020.