A Train to the Sea: The New Route to Alcudia, Designed to Transform Transport in Mallorca

Plans to bring the train to Alcudia carry a sense of historical obligation and a great deal of modern pragmatism. Obligation, because the island has been cherishing this idea since the 19th century, when the railway was extended to Manacor and Inca, and there was already talk of ‘touching the sea’ in the Bay of Alcudia. Pragmatism, because today’s high-season road congestion calls for solutions capable of moving thousands of people safely and cleanly.

The proposed solution is hybrid: a powerful train in the open countryside that becomes an integrated tram at 30 km/h on entering the town, with stops at Avinguda del Tucà, Platja d'Alcúdia, the sports centre, a station that connects the old town via a public road, and which ends at the maritime station. The promised schedules are as precise as they are attractive: 13 minutes from Sa Pobla to the first stop in Alcudia, and 24 minutes to the commercial port, with park-and-ride car parks for timely drop-off and direct connections with the public transport network to make transfers easy.

The technical heart of the route beats underground. Five kilometres of tunnel through the Son Fe and Sant Martí hills means the project avoids the S'Albufera Natural Park and reduces the impact on third parties, a turn from previous attempts that failed precisely because of their impact. The rest of the route, in the open countryside, combines sections of railway with the urban behaviour of a tram that runs amid pedestrians and bicycles, restoring some calm to the public space. It’s the missing piece to connect the inland to the coast, while also providing a smoother connection between Mallorca and Menorca via the train to the port and the ferry to Ciutadella, without the need for a car.

The sustainable look is not just about rails; it’s about habits. A train that arrives ‘on time’ all year round, not just in summer, can make a big change in terms of routines and emissions. Therefore, beyond concrete, its success will depend on the service frequency, timetables and fares designed for workers, students and visitors. Other crucial details that will make it more useful include: cycle lanes that connect stations to neighbourhoods and schools; high-frequency shuttles to housing estates; and a stop design that makes it attractive to walk the last few metres. The plan already includes five park-and-ride car parks—one located next to the new, more central Sa Pobla station—as well as intermodality with the public transport network.

It’s also a project steeped in history. Alcudia had a train in the past, although not a passenger train: in the 1940s, an industrial railway just over two kilometres long connected the Alcanada quarry with the port in order to extend the dock. The locomotive ran alongside the coast; today there is no trace of it, except for some photographs and the tale that some of the rails supposedly came from the failed attempt to extend the Sa Pobla line.

Earlier, in 1939, another plan was to take the train to Alcudia and the seaplane base at Pollentia for military reasons. Land was expropriated, a trench was opened that cut through the Roman quarter of Sa Portella in Pollentia, but the work was stopped in 1940 and finally abandoned in 1968. That section could of course now become a Roman-inspired garden and a green corridor towards a future archaeological centre in Sa Tanca de Can Domènech: a track that, paradoxically, the train never used.

There is no lack of caution. Sa Pobla has sought consensus and an evaluation of alternative options. Environmentalists and municipal staff have suggested bringing the route closer to existing roads, possibly extending along the Artà road to join the bay with the support of regular shuttle buses, as well as cycling networks that ensure safe road access. This is an invitation to fine-tune the project in order to avoid unnecessary impacts, and will need to be carefully considered.

The ambitious timeline presents the sequence as follows: initial approval of the preliminary study and public exhibition, awarding of contracts, basic design plus environmental assessment, works from 2028, and finally opening in 2031. The €225.5 million investment requires a long-term vision: fewer cars on access roads, less traffic jams in the summer months, and cleaner air in an area that depends on its countryside and its hospitability. It will also offer a gateway to beaches, the old town and the port, with predictable timetables that both workers and tourists will appreciate.

In the end, this train is more than just a line on the map; it also serves to reconcile the island with its own railway history, where a track once skimmed the sea carrying an industrial locomotive, while another spent decades dreaming of reaching the bay, but only got halfway there. If it succeeds this time, the north of Mallorca will finally be able to move in a different way. And that, for a destination that seeks true sustainability, is perhaps the best news.