article_detail

The Málaga metro has never had a busier Feria. Between August 15 and August 22, a total of 402,131 passengers used the network during the city's annual festival, breaking the 400,000 barrier for the first time since the metro opened in July 2014. That's a 9.4% increase on last year's figure of 367,503 and the highest demand ever recorded during a Feria special service.

 

The busiest single day came as no surprise to anyone who knows the festival. The night of the fireworks display, which traditionally marks the opening of festivities, saw 62,979 passengers travel on lines 1 and 2, a 30.8% jump on the same evening in 2025 and the highest daily figure in the metro's history. Thursday and Tuesday weren't far behind, with 45,370 and 45,147 passengers respectively.

 

Mario Muñoz-Atanet, the regional Minister of Development and Mobility, described the result as "satisfactory," noting that it "not only consolidates the qualitative leap achieved by the metro with its arrival in the historic centre in 2023, but is also encouraging greater use of the metro to reach the Cortijo de Torres fairgrounds."

 

That expansion to the city centre has made a real difference to how people get around during the Feria. When the Guadalmedina and Atarazanas stations opened in March 2023, the metro suddenly became a practical option for reaching the daytime fair in the heart of the city, not just the main fairgrounds site. The numbers since then reflect that shift, with 337,273 passengers in 2023, 377,769 in 2024 and now 402,131 in 2026, a 19.2% increase over three years.

 

Lines 1 and 2 together cover 13.6 kilometres and serve 19 stations. Since commercial operations began in 2014, the network has carried more than 109 million passengers in total.

 

For a city the size of Málaga, getting people to choose the metro over a car during one of the most congested periods of the year is no small achievement.

 

 

Image: wikicommons