The Anti Train Association – Transport East network have analysed the Plan de transportes ferroviarios of the Islas Baleares, the project to re-open the Manacor – Artà railway, the environmental impact report, the railway laws, and have followed the information relevant to railway transport in Mallorca.
After analysing all this information, the association considers that to carry out this project is an irresponsible policy that will degrade the future of public transport to the Levante of Mallorca with a grave loss of territory.
For these and the following reasons, the association asks that the president of the Islas Baleares re-assess the necessity and the priority of reopening and rebuilding the Manacor – Artà line. And that if at the end, he still considers that they must give priority to the railway line with the least potential demand of the whole of Mallorca, the n he doesn’t allow them to start work until all the plans have been drawn up and approved Manacor centre, the route to Cala Ratjada and the route to Porto Cristo. That is, we ask the president of the Islas Baleares, to not continue with the expropriations, nor start work, until they know all the needs and necessities for the whole of the Levante region (Manacor – Artà - Cala Ratjada and Porto Cristo), even though, afterwards, the project will be carried out in stages.
In addition, after following the budget of the central government we can see that there is insufficient money to build this project, even though there is a signed agreement.
Another thing that worries us is that if they start the project without a guaranteed budget and they have to stop and abandon the project after already expropriating our land that would then be also abandoned and uncared for.
We’re also worried that they will start work without having clearly decided on 3 major points:
1. The connection with the present station in Manacor.
2. The route of the hypothetical train to Porto Cristo. It only came to light in the July 2009 modified version of the project that there is a hypothetical future branch to Porto Cristo from the rural centre of Son Carrió.
3. The continuation to Cala Ratjada, that is still under planning.
To not have these points decided would cause future work to not coincide with work they do now:
1. If they don’t know where the train will pass through Manacor, perhaps the provisional location for a station will not be suitable and it will be work that needs undoing or redoing.
2. If they build the train sheds in Son Carrió without having rigorously analysed from where the train will travel to / from Porto Cristo (since the Consejería de Movilidad gave the only reason, recently, non-existent in the original project, to build the sheds in Son Carrió is for a hypothetical branch to Porto Cristo), could mean that future studies determine a better route for the Porto Cristo branch would be from Manacor. This would mean that in the future they might have to relocate the sheds to Manacor, and rebuild them, with the cost that this would once again incur.
3. If it is not clear how to route to Cala Ratjada, nor from where it will come from, it also isn’t clear where the station and the sheds will be located (as they won’t be in the same place) in Artà. These plans to Cala Ratjada, could affect the placement of part of the old plans to Artà, and this would mean, once again, a rearrangement, and additional cost.
Alternative Option
Given all the reasons that make us believe that the Artá railway is a poorly realised project for the Levante region and the lack detail in the project and in the plans, the Anti Train Association suggests a bus network that has maximum population coverage and that avoids the need to construct more infrastructures. It also proposes to convert the old railway lines into greenlines (www.viasverdes.como) and restore the stations to convert them into working stations. The greenlines would offer an alternative tourist attraction for the Levante region.
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