Mazón says that before the end of 2025 the 6.2 kilometres of track between Benidorm and La Vila hospital will have been doubled
The Regional Government will undertake the tram extension between Beniardà station and the Intermodal
The Regional Government, through the Ministry of Environment, Water, Infrastructure and Territory, has confirmed that it will carry out the tram extension of the section of track of just over a kilometre that runs between Beniardá station and the Intermodal station in Benidorm. This is a request long demanded by the city, which has been attended to be carried out while the project is already underway- to double the track in the section between Benidorm station and La Vila Joiosa hospital.
And the Regional Government has decided to classify as "tram track" the section between PK 43+980 and PK 45+000 of Line 9 that corresponds to the aforementioned between Beniardá and the Intermodal station. In this way, the project for the duplication and electrification of the track has already been approved to include a modification to assume the aforementioned tramway and to be integrated into the work itself.
For this reason, the president of the Regional Government, Carlos Mazón, has been in Benidorm today to visit the works that are being carried out between the station and the hospital of La Vila Joiosa, which began last July and whose end is scheduled for December of this year. The work has a budget of 39.5 million euros. Mazón has been accompanied by the regional minister of Environment, Water, Infrastructure and Territory, Vicente Martínez; by the mayor of Benidorm Toni Pérez, the entire local government team and the mayors of La Vila Joiosa and Finestrat, municipalities through whose terms the work takes place.
Mazón has assured that the citizens of Marina Baixa “finally see realities” such as the updating of the tram line in the Benidorm-Finestrat and Vila Joiosa section and the tram connection between the stations in Benidorm, “which meet the needs of a region that is an economic and tourist engine of the Region”.
The head of the Consell has highlighted that these works will allow for “a better service and an increase in the frequency of the trains”. The works, he has detailed, will involve the construction of a new viaduct over the Murtal ravine, the restoration of the Cala de Finestrat and Terra Mítica stops, as well as access to the regional hospital. At the request of Benidorm City Council, a pedestrian walkway will be built that will cross the railway line and connect the park-and-ride parking lot with El Moralet Park.
In addition, new security and railway communications facilities will be provided and the restoring of the existing ones. Work will also be carried out on the power substations to meet the new network requirements and to update obsolete electrical equipment.
The work will, however, require cutting off rail traffic for three and a half months on the section between La Vila Hospital and Benidorm, for which an alternative bus service will be established on this section from 28 January. The cut will take place once rail service has been restored on the entire Line 9 (Benidorm-Dénia) and a bus service will be enabled between Creueta station and Benidorm.
After the visit, Mayor Toni Pérez emphasised that “we have gone from the fiction of the announcements to the reality of the facts and this required political will and determination”. Pérez has become the spokesperson for the mayors of La Vila Joiosa and Finestrat, “three mayors concerned about the lack of investment in this region to connect our public health centre with the population centres”. The mayor has stated that it is “a fundamental connection” to double the Tram line between Benidorm and the hospital. “We have been working on it for a long time, but nobody listened to us until the arrival of the government of Carlos Mazón” he added.
In his opinion, this work will allow “better mobility” and that is why he has emphasised that “now the European funds are a reality and that they will make it possible for the work to end on 31 December this year and connect the inhabitants of the region with the hospital”.
On the other hand, the mayor recalled that years ago we “lost” the connectivity of the Tram Line 9, “which was incomprehensibly skewed and now it will return and the train that linked our towns will make sense again”.
For his part, the councillor Vicente Martínez Mus praised the figure of the three mayors present “who have been very demanding”, which has led his department to “not waste a minute” and to try to “improve the work as it is being carried out”. Martínez said that this work “required attitude and we have had it”.
Finally, the president of the Generalitat has said that this project is “the prelude to improving the frequencies” and has highlighted the fact that “we come to talk about works that are being carried out, not announced. Talk about investments that have been waiting for nine years and that now have a real budget”.
Mazón concluded by saying that the tram connection to the intermodal station “is in the planning stages” and he promised that it will become a reality. He also assured that this tram connection “is also the prelude to the other one we are already working on, which is the complete tram connection to Denia”.
