VALENCIA GIVES GREEN LIGHT TO STUDY GANDIA-OLIVA-DÉNIA TRAM EXTENSION
“We are going to address, resolve and prioritize the historical debt of the Generalitat with Gandia,” said the president.
The president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Carlos Mazón, has announced that the regional government has opened up the tender process for the planning study phase of the Gandía-Oliva-Dénia TRAM extension, reaffirming a commitment to finishing the long-awaited project as soon as possible.
Speaking during a visit to Gandía, Mazón explained that the study process into the extension will cost of 135,000 euros, funding that the regional government has already allocated, and will take up to twelve months to be concluded.
Back in September 2022, then-president Ximo Puig also promised that a study into the extension would be carried out by the end of that year to restore a service that was dismantled in 1975, leaving the Marina Alta isolated from a direct tram link to the regional capital. And a few months earlier, in mid-May 2022, Mazón himself, then president of the Alicante Provincial Council, announced that his administration would promote the extension, saying that it “can no longer wait”.
Fast forward to April 2024. During his visit to Gandía, Mazón said that the extension of the TRAM service to Dénia would ““make it possible to energize one of the most prosperous axes in the entire Mediterranean” while also improving the connectivity of the region.
He added that, together with Gandía mayor José Manuel Prieto, he would “launch a joint and sensible effort so that the [coastal train] project does not fall into oblivion”. The Spanish Government has already dismissed the concept as a low priority but Mazón gave assurances that not only would his government “move forward so that the extension of the TRAM from Gandia to Dénia is a reality” but that, in parallel, “”we will continue to demand the coastal train”.
In March, the Spanish Minister for Transport and Urban Mobility, Oscar Puente, said that the ‘Tren de la Costa’ proposal was “enormously complex” and proposed that the TRAM extension was the better alternative. Restoring a coastal train service, which was removed some 50 years ago, would re-unite the Marina Alta with Valencia and even further afield to Barcelona.
28/09/2022 – VALENCIAN GOVERNMENT TO CONTRACT STUDY INTO GANDÍA-DÉNIA TRAM LINK – javeamigos.com
13/05/2022 – CARLOS MAZÓN: “THE PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT WILL COMMISSION THE DÉNIA-GANDÍA TRAM PROJECT – javeamigos.com
13/05/2022 – ARCADI ESPAÑA ANNOUNCES “SERIOUS AND VIABLE PROPOSAL” FOR TRAIN LINK BETWEEN GANDÍA AND DÉNIA – javeamigos.com
