Torrox takes the first step towards joining the Malaga metropolitan transport system

Transport

The eastern Costa del Sol town's councillors unanimously agreed to apply to join the consortium following the recent incorporation of Vélez-Málaga

Eugenio Cabezas

Councillors in Torrox on the eastern Costa del Sol have unanimously voted to submit the application to join the Consorcio de Transporte Metropolitano del Área ... de Málaga (Malaga area metropolitan transport consortium), following the recent incorporation of neighbouring Vélez-Málaga (Lagos) on 1 May this year.

The agreement will now be transferred to the consortium and the Junta de Andalucía, with the aim that Torrox can become a member. However, no deadlines have been specified, as the corresponding technical and feasibility reports will now have to be drawn up.

The proposal went ahead with the backing of all the groups in the town hall: PP, PSOE, IU and Vox.

The proposal went ahead with the support of all the groups of the town hall (PP, PSOE, IU and Vox) and is a measure that the PP government team has been saying is one of its main commitments in terms of transport. the local bus service in Torrox is already free for registered residents.

According to the town hall, membership of the consortium was "technically unfeasible until just a few days ago" due the legal requirement that Torrox had to be adjacent to a municipality already integrated in the consortium.

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  Eugenio Cabezas

Since Vélez-Málaga joined on 1 May, Torrox is now technically adjacent to a consortium member, thanks to a peculiarity of the eastern Costa del Sol: the coastal village of Lagos, which neighbours El Morche (Torrox), belongs to Vélez-Málaga, despite the fact that Algarrobo Costa, a separate municipality, sits between Mezquitilla (Vélez-Málaga) and Lagos.

The future integration, still pending the approval of the consortium, would allow residents to access the single transport card, with savings that, according to the town hall can reach 80 per cent on urban journeys and significant discounts on journeys to Malaga city or Rincón de la Victoria.

"We knew that other municipalities were going to take this step and we waited for the legal window to open to act with guarantees of success".

Fernández insisted that the local government had waited for legal guarantees to initiate the dossier. "We knew that other municipalities were going to take this step and we have waited for the legal window to open to act with guarantees of success," he explained at the full council meeting on Monday 25 May, when the vote took place.

The entry of Torrox into the consortium would represent a new step forward in the integration of public transport in the Axarquía, an area of Malaga province where transport still depends largely on private vehicles and where improved connections with Malaga city and neighbouring towns and villages are called for by residents.