The City Council asks the Ministry to negotiate the transfer of the old station

The old Almería Railway Station still has no clear owner for its future use. The City Council has asked the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility to stop keeping silent and sit down to negotiate the transfer of the building, according to the Consistory. The councillor for Urbanism, Housing and Major Festivals, Eloísa Cabrera, has defended that the municipal Government has been working since 2024 on the recovery of the property. In July of that year, the Popular Municipal Group promoted a plenary initiative to promote the transfer and create a working commission between the City Council, Adif and the Ministry. The municipal proposal involves turning the station into a cultural space. The draft preliminary project presented by the mayor, María del Mar Vázquez, contemplates exhibition spaces, cultural rooms, a multipurpose space and a Railway Interpretation Centre. Cabrera has defended that this cultural use be compatible with other activities, such as tourist, hospitality or restaurant activities, provided they respect the protection of the building.

The debate reached the plenary through a motion by Podemos-IU-Verdes with Almería on the transfer of the property and its cultural use. All groups shared the general objective, but disagreed on the conditions of use and the management model. Cabrera has questioned that the motion seeks to impose conditions without having negotiated first with Adif and the Ministry. She has also warned that any agreement must first establish the legal and economic conditions of the transfer, the obligations of each administration, the financing of the actions and the long-term maintenance commitments. «Responsibilities between administrations are not distributed simply by writing them in a motion. They are negotiated, specified and agreed with the owning administration,» the councillor explained. The main obstacle, according to Cabrera, is the Ministry's lack of response to the meeting requests made by the mayor. The councillor has asked that the possible railway needs, the technical conditions or Adif's proposals on the future of the property be clarified. «Reaching agreements takes two parties, and Almería has already shown that it is willing to sit down,» she insisted.