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Alicante airport is set to be connected to the rail network after the Spanish government gave final approval to the feasibility study for the Torrellano bypass, a project that will also allow the railway tracks to be removed from the city's coastline.

 

Transport Minister Óscar Puente announced the news on X on the same day President of the Spanish Government Pedro Sánchez called a surprise general election for November 29. Puente explained that the works will allow the coastal railway track between San Gabriel and Agua Amarga to be dismantled and will "address the connection to the airport".

 

A better rail connection to the airport has long been on the agenda for the city and its visitors, which makes this latest approval a significant milestone. For travellers, it's the biggest part of the announcement, as it will finally bring the terminal into the rail network, although the works still have to be put out to tender before anything can start on site.

 

As the final administrative step before that tender, the approval follows the Environmental Impact Assessment, which was signed off last June after the scheme had been under review at the Ministry for Ecological Transition since January 2025. The government then took less than two months, even with the August summer break in between, to approve the feasibility study, which sets out the route the new tracks will follow.

 

The Torrellano bypass is one of the biggest infrastructure challenges facing Sánchez's government in Alicante, and residents right across the city have called for it, not just those in the southern districts. The existing tracks in San Gabriel cut the area off from the sea and block plans for a continuous 14-kilometre coastal promenade stretching along the coast from Urbanova to San Juan Beach, so removing them would clear the way for that seafront walk.

 

They've also been a serious danger, having claimed around twenty lives this century, and taking them off the coastline is something people across Alicante have been calling for.

 

 

Image: Óscar Puente