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Date Published: 20/08/2024

Waste of time: Murcia-Malaga train slammed over 7-hour journey time

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The so-called ‘high-speed’ connection between Murcia and the Costa del Sol has to travel through Madrid

Waste of time: Murcia-Malaga train slammed over 7-hour journey time

If ever something was poorly labelled, it’s the ‘high-speed’ AVE rail route between Murcia and Malaga, a painfully long trip which takes almost 7 hours because it first has to travel north to Madrid.

Even though the connection was only launched on June 1, the Association of Consumer and Users (Consumur) has called on its operator, Renfe, to cancel the entire service, calling it an absolute “failure”.

While this journey by car would take a little over four hours, the ‘fast’ train makes no fewer than eleven stops, including Alicante, Albacete, Madrid, Ciudad Real and Córdoba. Furthermore, Consumur argues that the departure times (3.32pm from Murcia and 8.05am from Malaga) don’t meet the needs of travellers.

"In addition to the itinerary and duration, the schedules do not respond to the needs of users who might travel for work reasons, but rather to a very specific profile of traveller whose motivation is more focused on taking a tourist route," a spokesperson said.

Believing that the journey length and departure times are off-putting, the organisation asked Renfe to publish the number of passengers routinely using this line, but it refused, arguing that these are commercial services that do not receive public subsidies and that revealing this information could be detrimental to the company’s competitiveness.

The organisation claims it has already highlighted the wide range of alternative transport possibilities to make this journey of around 400 kilometres in half the time and with half the budget.

"This line has been a resounding failure, but one that has already been announced, since the route it follows is totally an aberration, taking a tremendous detour to get to Malaga or Murcia, depending on the origin, passing through Madrid. Many hours, with a totally inaccessible price and also without sense," concluded the president of Consumur, Roberto Barceló.

In other news: Amazon founder shows off his new superyacht in Cartagena

Image: Renfe

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