A TRAIN CALLED “DESIRE”
It was the year 2001 and in Almería the siren songs about the arrival of the AVE to our province were already beginning to reach our ears. It was during the government of Jose María Aznar and through the president of the Popular Party of Almería, Luis Rogelio Rodriguez-Comendador, who, with great fanfare, set a date for the inaugural trip in 2007. It has been 22 years since that announcement. Almost a quarter of a century later, after a crisis that left us shivering, a pandemic that almost swept us away and a war that suffocated our pockets, we are still seeing how the pillars that will hold the sleepers and the tracks that will guide the long-awaited high-speed train to our homes. In other words, there is still a long way to go before we can finally enjoy a connection with the rest of the 21st century peninsula. During all this time, provincial, regional and national governments, of the two main colors have been promising us what, due to neglect or impossibility, they could not fulfill. But we are not going to go into detail about the long history of disdain and broken promises throughout all this time since for that there is already a vast and extensive newspaper archive of articles and statements that documents each and every one of the nonsense to which They have subjected us to Almeria.
LET’S THINK POSITIVE
The good news are that “there is less left”. When?. We don’t know. We know what they have told us (year 2026), but given the long history of unfulfilled promises, it is hard to believe one more. Still, the truth is that yes, there is less. For some time now, anyone who has been driving along the A7 motorway in the direction of Almería has been able to see the progress of the works with some optimism. Machinery of all kinds removing earth, cranes transporting material, concrete mixers coming and going, workers busy at their jobs, etc… all in a “quasi-artistic” composition of civil engineering that makes our eyes mist over with a mixture of emotion. , disbelief and, at the same time, skepticism. Is it true? Will the pace of the works continue without any more ups and downs? Be that as it may, at this point, we would not be surprised by a delay of one or two more years until we can make use of this service since the works, works are and are still unpredictable but, it rains less.
WELCOME “MR. AVE”
Why so much hope and illusion in this infrastructure? It is vox populi the degree of isolation of the province of Almería suffers, not only with the rest of the country but even with its neighboring provinces. Except for the state network of roads and highways, the rest of the transport options can hardly be considered as such: an international airport whose monopoly of flights to the capital is “squatted” by IBERIA with prices that are certainly prohibitive, being, in many cases, cheaper to fly to London than to Madrid; a practically non-existent and wasteful railway network whose wagons are driven by locomotive heads from other times which, in addition, to make matters worse, suffer constant breakdowns that prevent them from being able to offer a minimum of quality in a service, already in itself, from another century. Despite everything, Almería looks forward and we await the arrival of the AVE like rain in May, not because it will be the solution to all ills, but because it means removing one more stone from a cobbled path, obstacles and grievances that, historically ( at least in the last 20 years), have prevented the province from reaching a cruising speed for which it is already prepared and to which, until now, they have not allowed it to accelerate. Not even close.
Almería is called to be one of the economic locomotives of Andalusia. The three basic pillars that sustain our economy, agriculture, tourism and the marble industry, grow year after year at high rates despite the constant sticks in the wheels of our companies.
Why the AVE? Because we need to sell our products, which today are transported by road at an extra cost that hinders our competitiveness compared to our rivals. In addition to freight transport, we need a modern passenger transport network that connects us with the rest of the peninsula and Europe. That is why we have so many expectations with the AVE stations programmed in Almería capital and Vera. If Almería is an island compared to the rest of Spain, Levante Almeriense belongs to another solar system. The AVE station projected in the Media Legua de Vera area, behind the base of the well-known company Garciden, will serve not only the residents of this region but also those of nearby towns and regions who will be able to avoid the almost 150 kilometers distance that separate us from the city of Murcia where, since December 2022, they already enjoy the high-speed trains of RENFE.
Estación de AVE de Vera proyectada en el año 2011
AND WHEN IT COMES, WHATS NEXT?
What can we expect? In the first place, improve our quality of life by having better communications with medium-distance urban centers such as Almería, Murcia or Alicante, where we can move effortlessly to work meetings, shopping or simply for tourism. Not only that. The AVE will also bring us closer to Madrid, or what is the same, to the largest international airport in the country and fifth in Europe by volume of passengers. In other words, we will be more and better connected with Europe and with the rest of the world. We will no longer depend so much on IBERIA’s abusive prices on its flights to the capital. We can consider going on a weekend to enjoy a musical or the theater without having to depend on the vehicle driving long hours to destination, or simply to visit friends or family.
The AVE will bring us closer to the world and the world will get closer to us. Shortening distances with the capital of Spain and other cities will also make us more attractive in the eyes of tourists and investors (national and foreign). We trust that the improvement in communication will help us to break seasonality a little more in the winter months, especially in tourist destinations such as Mojácar, Garrucha or Vera. Many of the owners of second homes in Levante Almeriense, whose visits to the region are usually limited to long weekends, Easter or summer holidays and who come from the interior of the country, may consider enjoying their holiday homes on weekends or, even, exchange their habitual residence for the one they own on the coast.
Attracting more visitors will also bring more investment. The demand for residential and holiday housing will increase, serving as bait to real estate developers from other latitudes who looked away when it came to Almería and who, this time, will focus their attention on the development of new developments that satisfy the growing demand. Real estate development will bring with it more jobs, more population, more tourists… and, with them, we will begin to see how commercial brands that until now we could only enjoy in neighboring cities are beginning to establish themselves. In short, the arrival of the AVE will mean a before and after for the entire province in general and for Levante Almeriense in particular.
