The hugely popular Balearic Island of Majorca is set to have a brand new railway, which will connect Son Sant Joan airport and the centre of Palma, the capital and major city located on the southwest of the island.
The project has been given the green light following talks between the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, and the President of the Balearics, Marga Prohens, who agreed to begin work between technicians from both administrations for a new agreement on state investment.
Providing the project does finally go ahead, the route will be more than 17 miles long, of which about 4.5 miles will run underground.
The route will leave Palma underground from the Son Costa-Son Fortesa station, located in calle Jacint Verdaguer and currently a train stop for Inca and sa Pobla.
The project would go above ground to complete a route just over three miles until it goes underground again in a new section between the Mercapalma area and Son Oms, passing through Palma airport, to then continue above ground as far as Llucmajor, according to the Majorca Daily Bulletin.
The route will pass through densely populated neighbourhoods such as Son Oliva, Son Fortesa, Can Capes, Son Gotleu and Coll d’en Rebassa.
The railway line has an estimated cost of more than 600 million euros, just under £500 million, and is slated for completion by 2032.
Said to provide a “mobility alternative to one of the most saturated roads”, the new service is predicted to be used by millions of passengers.
The service will make getting to different parts of the island much easier – possibly helping to ease potential overtourism problems, as visitors are dispersed across Majorca.
For Palma locals, the future journey to Palma Airport will be just 11 minutes and accessing Llucmajor shrink to only 28 minutes.
Home to about 35,000 people, Llucmajor boasts the title of the island’s largest municipality. It is a hotspot for those craving traditional Majorcan culture and a bit of peace away from the city bustle of Palma.
The development was announced by Prohens at a press conference after meeting with Sanchez in Madrid on Friday, as part of the President’s round of meetings with the heads of the Autonomous Communities.
Prohens expressed her satisfaction at the prime minister’s eagerness to contribute to the project.
She has requested that the state-owned Spanish airport authority, Aena, which owns Palma airport, should also be involved in the construction and financing of the project.
The Balearic president also stressed that Sanchez has shown himself to be in favour of revising the road agreements to update the pending contribution and renew the contribution for new road infrastructures.
The historic railway of Majorca, which shut in the 1960s, is still visible today, including bridges that are no longer used and stations that have been transformed into living spaces or business hubs.
Prohens said of the project earlier this month: “A project with which we are recovering and starting up again, after a decade of many promises and announcements, but of absolute paralysis, with not a single metre of track put out to tender.”
