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If you've tried to travel by train around Andalucía recently and found it more complicated than it should be, you're not alone. Several provinces across the region are dealing with a combination of cancelled routes, chronic overcrowding, ageing infrastructure and long-promised improvements that remain years away.

 

The scale of the problem is reflected in some stark numbers: the Madrid-Seville AVE high-speed line has seen a 30% drop in passengers, and Seville's commuter rail network has lost close to a million passengers in the past year alone.

 

The most dramatic recent change is the permanent withdrawal of the direct train connection between Almería and Madrid via Linares-Baeza. A service that ran for nearly 50 years has been replaced by road transfers, which offer neither the journey times nor the frequency that passengers were used to. The Almería Railway Defence Committee has been clear about what the province needs. "Almería needs more trains," it has said, calling for connections and travel times "in keeping with the 21st century" and describing modern rail infrastructure as "essential" for the economic, social and tourism development of a province that "wants to be connected and wants to move forward."

 

Jaén faces a different but equally frustrating situation. The conventional rail line connecting the province to Madrid takes between four and four and a half hours, a journey that campaigners say could be cut to two and a half hours with moderate investment. Several platforms are pushing for the line to be upgraded to accommodate variable-gauge trains such as the Alvia series, which would allow passengers to travel on the conventional network through Jaén before connecting directly to high-speed lines at Córdoba or Granada.

 

In Málaga, the issue is overcrowding rather than isolation, though the province has had its share of that too. A landslide at Álora left the area without normal rail service for more than three months earlier this year, affecting tourism and the local economy significantly. The Málaga commuter network now has the highest occupancy rate of any in Spain, ahead of Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia. Renfe recently announced six new trains with a capacity of 900 passengers each, but the announcement was undercut by the news that they won't be in service until 2028.

 

Huelva, meanwhile, has just four daily connections to Madrid compared to eleven from Cádiz, a gap that local institutions and community groups have long been pushing to close. The province was also hit hardest by the Adamuz train accident earlier this year, in which 46 people lost their lives. A Guardia Civil report attributed the derailment to a track welding failure caused by material fatigue.

 

Projects that could improve the picture include a rail link from Seville's Santa Justa station to San Pablo Airport, the coastal train along the Costa del Sol, and the Seville-Huelva-Faro high-speed line. Work on part of the Zaragoza-Algeciras freight corridor began on Saturday September 6 and is expected to continue until at least autumn 2027.

 

There's no shortage of ambition on paper. The gap between what's planned and what's actually running is what communities across the region are living with right now.

 

 

Image: Andalucia.com/travel