New train station in Malaga
On 27 November, the first stage of the new train station in Málaga was inaugurated. The station, which will be reached by high-speed trains next year, will hold eight times as many passengers as the old one, up to 24 millions a year. The María Zambrano Vialia Station will be the stage of a transport revolution, taking Málaga one step further on its way to become one of the major cities in Southern Europe.
Following the Ministry of Development’s guidelines laid down in the Strategic Infrastructure and Transport Plan (PEIT), the station was designed as a model of intermodality, boosting public transport to improve communications while protecting the environment.
Vialia Málaga will be the largest intermodal and commercial transport centre ever built in Spain. To the rail services already in operation –commuter, regional and long-distance trains–, it will add high-speed rail, bringing Málaga much closer to the rest of Spain and Europe.
The Vialia Project will give Málaga City a significant economic boost, since the station will feature a big shopping and leisure centre (with 102 retail shops), an underground car park (for 1,300 vehicles), a Lux Cinemas complex (including 13 cinema theatres), a 3,000 m2 professional bowling alley, and several restaurants. The complex will also have a four-star hotel run by Barceló, endowed with 222 guestrooms in 7 floors. In addition, Vialia Málaga will have a social impact, since it is expected to create 420 direct and 500 indirect jobs.
The new facilities’ total surface is 51,377 m2, that is, five times as large as the old station (9,720 m2), incorporating the Málaga commuter train station as well. As for rail capacity, it will have 8 platforms instead of 5, thus increasing by 60% the number of trains operating simultaneously.
Vialia’s works have meant an investment of 134.7 million euros in a design enhancing HST-commuter train intermodality and connecting the station with the airport, local and intercity bus lines, taxi ranks and other vehicles. Besides, in the future, the facilities will also be linked to two underground lines.
