train High Speed I Felipe VI Y Pedro Sanchez It has taken 19 years and four days to reach Murcia since Benigno Blanco, former Minister of State for Infrastructure, laid the first two sleepers of the new line on December 15, 2003. Three months later there were general elections and about the Government José Maria Aznar He was in a rush to start capitalizing on an investment project that would become the star of his show.
number two Ministry of Álvarez-Cascos In the Murcian district of Alquerías, somewhere in the middle of the orchard, he staged the commissioning of the new line, accompanied by the then mayor of Murcia, Miguel Angel Roomformer government representative By José Joaquín Peñarrubia and Joaquín BascuñanaWho was the Minister of Public Works?
As a symbol of the beginning of the work, they placed a monolith on which the date of the event appears. December 15, 2003, but withdrew soon after. It may even have been used in another similar action during the election campaign.
Agreement reached by the ex-president Ramon Luis Valcarcel In January 2001, the minister and the Madrid-Castilla La Mancha-Valencian Community-District, together with the heads of other autonomous communities through which the Murcia high-speed rail line would pass, paved the way for placing Murcia at the end of the road. He chose the route, forgetting the regional desire to connect with Madrid via Cieza.
Former Secretary of State Benigno Blanco was responsible for bringing the commemorative monolith.
Once the renewal of the natural link from Cartagena to Chinchilla is excluded, the entire investment AVE to Valencia and AlicanteWith the approval of the then-President of the Generalitat, Eduardo Zaplana from CartagenaSupported by his counterpart, José Bono, from Castilla-La Mancha.
Manchego left St. Stephen’s meeting Assuming that since Ciudad Real is already on the line from Madrid to Seville, it manages to pass the AVE through all the provinces of its community. Chronicles of the period say that Bono invited the president of the country. Generalitat to Albacete Fair and that the alliance between both presidents was sealed during a bullfight.
Zaplana, on the other hand, managed to get a toll-free hotline that Valencian businessmen were willing to deposit. In fact, Valencian employers had come to seek Croem’s support a few years ago. Special initiative of the region Join the project to have more weight in presenting its claims to the central government.
The then head of Croem, Thomas ZamoraHe said the region wanted to go to Madrid as it always does, because it is also the shortest alternative and avoids the loss of time and mileage required by the Valencia longing.
Valcarcel also said: AVE would arrive in Murcia Naturally, when the line to Alicante, whose electrification was also planned for a long time, was renewed, although he was paralyzed while waiting for his High Speed plans to come true.
Reasons why the former Murcian president agreed to this chinchilla line It is not known whether it was reduced to freight traffic.
However, the claim of the Ministry of Public Works and Renfe has always been Trains from Murcia to Madrid via Alicante.
This General budgets of the state Since the early 90’s they began to include the first batches for the construction of the Camarillas variant, but they were not executed. The first project to move the railway line away from the swamp, Josep Borrell He was the Minister of Public Works.
In fact, the last socialist government in the Community before Valcarcel, Sign a deal with Renfe and deposit money to cover Talgo’s deficit However, the trains that were in circulation at that time started to fill up in a short time and they stopped spending money on the Zone when more frequencies were needed.
The PP Government was aware that going to Madrid via Alicante was a grievance for Murcia and therefore Mariano Rajoy When he wanted to replace Aznar in March 2004, he said at an election rally that “AVE would reach Murcia via Cieza and Albacete”.
The paradox is that Rajoy lost the election but the Zapatero government Started creating the Camarillas variant As the first stage of the modernization of the Chinchilla line.
At the same time, the socialist government, at the same time, bird Between Beniel and Murcia. The expropriations created great difficulties due to opposition from residents, but when Rajoy finally arrived at La Moncloa in 2011, both sections were ready to begin laying the tracks.
Again, things did not progress at the same pace More so than the Valencian Community, because the section of Callosa de Segura was particularly contradictory, and it was necessary to make a tunnel to prevent the passage of new roads from Vega Baja.
AVE arrived in Valencia in December 2010 and Opened in Alicante in June 2013.
Neither the City Council of Murcia nor the Community resorted to diverting sewer pipes, making it possible to advance roads requiring irrigation and all kinds of materials. Adif made a surface road with the promise later to build an underground route, but the vote of no confidence that overthrew Rajoy caused changes in the Ministry’s plans and work began on the construction of the tunnel and the new station.
Pro Underground Platform managed to take the train underground
Bird Carmen will enter the station With an underground road that ends the physical barrier imposed by the railway in the southern neighborhoods of the city of Murcia. The construction of the tunnel, which removed the Santiago el Mayor level crossing and turned the old 19th-century layout into a pedestrian crossing, was made possible by the efforts of a group of residents who claimed to have been buried for three decades.
This the aspirations of the southern neighborhoods By imposing themselves on the plans of Adif and the Ministry, they caused the urban physiognomy of the city to undergo a change unlike any other city plan, despite the political parties’ ownership over time and including it in their own plans. programs.
Construction of the tunnel through which the rails run freed up a section of about seven kilometers and created a pedestrian artery that opens the city to neighborhoods from Nonduermas to Senda de los Garres. Closest to South Beach.
at first Underground Platform It was a silent collective that met every Tuesday, attending political calls and corporate actions with a timely banner. And that was until the AVE rails began to materialize physically in front of the houses and a wall was erected in front of the doors of the houses to isolate the High Speed line to prevent the invasion of the new rail line. .
From then on, the Tuesday meeting became a social movement gaining support and transforming its claim into the city’s longing. For months They demonstrated in the streets of Murcia He chanted slogans against the screens that Adif had erected in front of their houses. Pink Floyd’s The Wall (El muro) was a hymn that promoted solidarity inside and outside the District, as the Platform was a touchstone for residents of other cities.
Their call came to rekindle spirits, and in some cases they had to.and even face the police deploymentbut its peaceful character always prevailed.