More than one hundred years have elapsed since a project to take the railway to Puerto Alcudia was aborted. Subsequent plans to extend the railway from Sa Pobla have likewise been aborted. Given the track record (so to speak), no one will be holding their breath about the latest intention. But intention there is, and the Balearic Government's mobility ministry is due to give a presentation for this next week.
From what one can make out, options for a route from Sa Pobla involve a terminus in Puerto Alcudia. One of these options revives an idea that was floated back in 2008, prior to the plug for the extension project as a whole being pulled. It was only ever an additional possibility then, but now a tramline is back on the table. This could quite possibly go all the way from Sa Pobla, arrive at the coast at the meeting of Playa de Muro and Can Picafort and then run along the main Carretera Arta to the port.
It is an option, but one that would run up against precisely the same difficulties as were identified in 2008 - finding space alongside or even within Albufera, which is protected land, taking it over the bridge (some other structure would surely be needed) and then somehow managing to cram a line onto the road through Playa de Muro.
The impression is that this isn't the ministry's favoured option. The preference, on the face of it, might get round objections to the two alternatives that were argued over in 2008 and eventually resulted in abandonment because no one could agree. The government back then wanted a route to run parallel to the road from the motorway but which would have eaten up land in Son Fe. Landowners objected, staged a tractor protest and the town hall openly supported them; its preference was a line by Albufera with a possible terminus at Es Fogueró.
The ministry's solution would be a tunnel beneath the Puig Son Fe and the Puig Sant Martí. Which sounds like it would be the most costly, but probably could prevent the protests of the past.
The presentation will be the fruit of an informative study, government thinking being that a transport connection can be made between Palma and Menorca - rail from Palma to Alcudia's port and with a ferry link to Ciutadella.
The government believes this is a strategic project, as it will not only improve the public transport network in Mallorca but will also significantly help strengthen the connection between the two islands, substantially facilitating mobility for residents of both islands.