Proceedings after years of neglect
On 19 August we received a letter from Alicante City Council informing us that it had opened sanction proceedings against ADIF over the condition of the former railway land next to Casa Mediterráneo and Parque del Mar. Proceedings have just begun and no final penalty has been imposed.
For years we have called on the council to require ADIF to look after its land. The tracks went out of service more than half a century ago, yet the site has deteriorated into a filthy and unhealthy spot at one of Alicante’s most visible gateways.
Those of us who reach Parque del Mar this way still encounter bags of rubbish, rats and human excrement. We cannot accept having to dodge waste and cross neglected land to enter a public park.
ADIF can act before the agreement is signed
A report from Cadena SER Radio Alicante on 20 August covered our call for ADIF to stop treating the disused tracks as active railway infrastructure. It makes no sense to give them the same administrative status as tracks still used by trains and allow that classification to delay the recovery of the land even further.
Work on the agreement between ADIF and the council goes back to 2012. Fourteen years later it remains unsigned. We ask for the administrative process of removing the land from railway use to begin now, while negotiations continue, so bureaucracy does not add years of delay when the time comes to transfer the land to the city.
Clear the land, end its railway designation and open safe access
Opening proceedings must lead to visible results. We call on ADIF to clear and maintain its land immediately, remove the obsolete tracks and start the process of ending the active designation of land that has seen no railway use for decades.
We also call on ADIF and Alicante City Council to sign the transfer agreement at last, with a timetable and verifiable commitments. Reclaiming the land should improve the southern gateway and the area around Casa Mediterráneo and provide safe, suitable walking routes to Parque del Mar.
Media coverage
Gallery
