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Perspectives of territorial development linked to the future high-performance rail lines in Eastern
Andalusia.

The stations´ location also limits its functionality and its relationship with the cities. In
the case of the provincial capital cities they are adequately central, but in the case of
the other stations they are distant from the city centres, as the lines were built in most of
the cases for colonial reasons. As for example the Linares-Baeza station is 7.4 Km distant
from Linares (58,800 Hab.),and the station of Moreda has a very weak relationship with
the little village of the same name (590 Hab.) because it is 2.1 Km distant. Nevertheless
in the current HSR development the railoriented logic is also imposed, as the location of
the station of Antequera-Santa Ana seeks only an adequate rail connection but it is 20 Km
distant from the city and isolated in the middle of the country only linked by a small road
access. However they are now rebuilding Antequera’s station at the edge of the city for
the renewed rail line towards Granada.

With respect to the ports-rail links in Eastern Andalusia the inexistent and weak
connections that were recognized decades ago are maintained (Gómez y Grindlay, 2001).
Thus Almeria’sport is still without a rail link since the eighties and studies are being made
as to whether this should be underground in the frame of a railway integration protocol
in the city. The port of Motril had a cable connection which disappeared in the sixties,
but historically lacks a rail link to the rail network. The port of Malaga located alongside
the city centre has a weak rail link limited by various level crossings over the main
urban roads. Recently attempts have been made to reuse the tracks for the transport of
clinker towards Antequera during night hours but this has not been successful. The port of
Algeciras has the most freight movement in Spain and has rail links at the most important
docks, but has a limited rail access from the nineteenth century line Bobadilla-Algeciras,
which passes by the city of Ronda (34,400 Hab.).

Therefore, at the beginning of the present decade the situation of the Eastern Andalusia
rail network, excepting the indicated two new HSR lines, was a conventional single track
and nonelectrified set of lines with limited speed in many sections. In addition for freight
transport one of the most important limitations is the train length restriction of 500 m,
due to the limited passing tracks when they should be at least of 750 m or longer to be
competitive.

The next table demonstrates this severely underdeveloped rail network situation of
Eastern Andalusia at the beginning of the present decade.

International Congress on High-speed Rail: Technologies and Long Term Impacts - Ciudad Real (Spain) - 25th anniversary Madrid-Sevilla corridor 329