The Costa del Sol train: the C-1 from Málaga to Fuengirola, and the plan to reach Marbella

The Costa del Sol has one railway line along the coast, the C-1, part of Renfe’s commuter network around Málaga. It runs from the centre of Málaga through the airport, Torremolinos and Benalmádena to Fuengirola, and it ends there. West of Fuengirola, Marbella and Estepona have no train, and neither does Nerja to the east. This guide sets out the stations, the journey times and the timetable for October 2026, the fares and the 2026 passes, the high-speed trains and the Metro in Málaga, the buses and the toll road that cover the rest of the coast, and where the plan for a coastal line to Marbella stands. The times and fares are Renfe’s and the bus companies’ own, and the history of the plan is taken from the Ministry’s contract notices, linked where they appear.

The C-1, station by station

Seventeen stations, from east to west:

• Málaga: Centro-Alameda, María Zambrano, Victoria Kent, Guadalhorce, Aeropuerto, Plaza Mayor
• Torremolinos: Los Álamos, La Colina, Torremolinos, Montemar Alto, El Pinillo
• Benalmádena: Benalmádena-Arroyo de la Miel, Torremuelle
• Fuengirola: Carvajal, Torreblanca, Los Boliches, Fuengirola

María Zambrano is the main station, where the high-speed trains, the Metro and the bus station meet. Renfe marks fifteen of the seventeen as accessible. Plaza Mayor and Los Álamos are the two it does not.

Each stretch of the line has its own character, set out in the area guides: Málaga city, Torremolinos and Benalmádena, with Benalmádena on its own page, and Fuengirola, which has four of the stations. Carvajal station sits at the foot of El Higuerón. Mijas has no station. Las Lagunas, the part of Mijas beside Fuengirola, is four to seven minutes by car from Fuengirola station, and Los Pacos eight or nine.

Journey times and the timetable

From Renfe’s timetable for the week of 19 October 2026:

• Fuengirola to the airport: 33 minutes, and 34 the other way
• Fuengirola to Málaga Centro-Alameda: 46 minutes
• Benalmádena-Arroyo de la Miel to the airport: 19 minutes
• Torremolinos to the airport: 10 minutes
• the airport to María Zambrano: 8 minutes, and to Centro-Alameda 12

On weekdays, 52 trains run each way. From Fuengirola a train leaves every 20 minutes from 07:20 to 22:20, and from Centro-Alameda every 20 minutes from 06:30 to 21:30, with gaps of 30 to 35 minutes early and late. At weekends there are 49 each way, every 40 minutes in the early morning and every 20 minutes after that.

The first train from Fuengirola to Málaga leaves at 06:10 and the last at 23:50, with one more just after midnight. The first from Centro-Alameda to Fuengirola leaves at 05:20 and the last at 23:30. Timetables change, so the day’s times on Renfe’s site are the ones to go by.

The airport station

The airport has its own station, four stops from Centro-Alameda. From the airport, trains to Fuengirola run from 05:32 to 23:42, and trains into Málaga from 06:44 to 00:54. For an owner in Torremolinos, Benalmádena or Fuengirola, the train is a working alternative to a taxi or a car at the airport: ten minutes to Torremolinos, about twenty to Arroyo de la Miel and 34 to Fuengirola.

Fares, and the 2026 passes

Renfe’s single fares go by the number of zones crossed: €1.80 for one or two zones, €2.05 for three, €2.70 for four and €3.60 for five, the most the line charges. A same-day return is twice the single. A ticket has to be used within two hours of buying it.

You can also tap a contactless bank card or phone at the gates, on the way in and on the way out. If you do not tap out, you pay the highest fare. From the fifth trip in a calendar month on the same card, singles are 40% cheaper.

The consortium’s travel card is cheaper for regular journeys. The Málaga area’s transport consortium has a card that works on the train and on its own buses, and its fares go by its own zones. Málaga and the airport are zone A, Torremolinos and Benalmádena zone B, and Fuengirola and Mijas zone C. From 15 July to 31 December 2026, a train journey on the card costs €1.04 within one zone, €1.18 across one zone boundary and €1.58 across two, which covers the airport to Fuengirola. The card costs €1.50 and takes top-ups from €5, and up to 15 people can travel on one card. It does not cover Marbella, Estepona, Nerja or Torrox, which are outside the consortium’s area.

The 2026 season tickets. The free pass scheme for frequent travellers ended in Málaga on 30 June 2025. Under Royal Decree-law 17/2025, free passes in 2026 remain only in Asturias and Cantabria. What applies in Málaga from 1 January to 31 December 2026, on Renfe’s terms, is:

• a monthly pass at €20, personal, for unlimited travel on every Cercanías network in Spain, loaded on Renfe’s own contactless card, which can take up to two weeks to issue
• a young person’s monthly pass at €10, for anyone born between 2000 and 2011, with a code from the Ministry of Transport
• a free pass for children born from 2012, with the same code
• the Abono Único, €60 for 30 days, or €30 for young people, which adds Renfe’s regional trains and the state-run coach lines

The high-speed train, the Metro and the C-2

The AVE. María Zambrano is Málaga’s high-speed station. On Renfe’s own timetable for a Tuesday in October 2026, there are 12 direct Renfe trains a day to Madrid, the fastest taking 2 hours 44 minutes. The fastest direct train to Seville takes 2 hours 7 minutes, and the one direct train to Barcelona just over 7 hours.

The Metro. Málaga’s Metro has two lines and 19 stations over 13.6 kilometres, from the university and the Palacio de los Deportes into the centre at Atarazanas and Guadalmedina, as its 2026 service charter sets out. El Perchel, its stop for María Zambrano, is the change between the train and the Metro. An extension to the Hospital Civil is under construction.

The C-2. Renfe’s second line runs inland from Málaga up the Guadalhorce valley to Álora, with a change at Cártama on the current timetable.

West of Fuengirola: Marbella, San Pedro and Estepona

There is no train west of Fuengirola. Marbella, San Pedro de Alcántara, Nueva Andalucía and Estepona run on the coach and the car.

From the airport. Avanza runs coaches from the arrivals level of Terminal 3. On its timetable from 14 September 2026, 40 a day go to Marbella, usually in about 40 minutes, and 19 to Estepona, usually in about 70. The fares from 1 June 2026 are €6.48 to Marbella, €7.68 to San Pedro and €10.24 to Estepona, with dearer express services on some departures.

From Málaga bus station, beside María Zambrano, about 60 coaches a day go to Marbella, in 45 minutes on the direct and express services, and 30 to Estepona, in 75 to 90 minutes. Málaga to Marbella is €7.81 and Málaga to Estepona €11.25. A 30-day pass for one return trip a day costs €104.94 to Marbella and €148.50 to Estepona, with a 40% discount that runs to 31 December 2026.

Along the coast. The consortium’s M-220 bus runs between Las Lagunas, Fuengirola and Marbella along the coast road, and stops at El Chaparral, in La Cala de Mijas, about every half hour. Altos del Chaparral and Elysea Suites are two of the new developments being built there.

By road. The A-7 runs the length of the coast free of charge. The AP-7, the Autopista del Sol, runs alongside it as a toll road. Its 2026 tolls for a car at the two main toll plazas are €5.70 at Calahonda and €3.85 at San Pedro in the normal season, rising to €9.25 and €6.25 from June to September and for seventeen days around Easter. The concession for the section from Málaga to Estepona runs to 2046, under the royal decree that granted it.

East of Málaga: Nerja and Torrox

Nerja and Torrox are reached by coach. ALSA runs 47 a day from Málaga to Nerja, from 06:30 to 23:05, taking between 45 minutes and two hours depending on the stops, with fares from €5.62. Torrox is on the same road, with 46 a day. The new builds on that stretch are set out by town.

The coastal line to Marbella and Estepona: where it stands

A railway along the coast west of Fuengirola has been studied before and not built. The current attempt is a feasibility study of the whole corridor from Nerja to Algeciras, and these are its steps:

• 31 December 2024. The Ministry of Transport’s railway directorate puts out to tender the feasibility study of the Costa del Sol rail corridor, valued at €993,650 before VAT, over 18 months.
• 21 April 2025. The contract is awarded to WSP Spain-APIA with MCRIT, for €819,761.25, from twelve bids.
• August 2026. A Ministry reply reported in the press puts the study’s end date at 2 April 2027, after a four-month extension.

As reported from the tender documents, the study covers five sections, Málaga to Nerja, Málaga to Fuengirola, Fuengirola to Marbella, Marbella to Estepona and Estepona to Algeciras, with the alternatives, the likely demand, and the costs and benefits of each. In 2018, Mijas asked for four stops on any coastal line, at Las Lagunas, La Cala, Riviera and Calahonda, and set land aside for one in its plan for La Cala.

In October 2026, the position is this:

• a feasibility study is under contract, reported as due in April 2027
• no route has been approved, and there is no environmental assessment
• the only money committed is the cost of the study
• nothing is under construction

After a study, a line still needs a chosen route, an environmental assessment, the design and the funding before any work starts. For a purchase made now, plan on Marbella and Estepona being reached by coach and car, and on the train being an advantage of the stretch from Málaga to Fuengirola.

Homes within a walk of a station

Some of the new developments on this site are close enough to a station to live without a car. By the walking times on their own pages:

• Korall Residences, El Higuerón: 5 minutes to Carvajal
• San Salvador 31, central Fuengirola: 8 minutes to Fuengirola
• Calle Independencia 5, central Fuengirola: 11 minutes to Fuengirola
• Torre Biznaga, Carvajal: 11 minutes to Torreblanca
• Santa Amalia, Fuengirola: 12 minutes to Fuengirola
• Alborán Bora, Torremolinos: 12 minutes to Los Álamos
• Kosmos, Torremolinos: 14 minutes to Montemar Alto

The full lists are on the new-build pages for Fuengirola and for Benalmádena and Torremolinos.

How I handle it

For a buyer who wants to live without a car, or with one car between two, I check the walk from the door to the station and to the shops before anything else, at the times of day you would make it, and the gradient on the way back. On a hillside such as El Higuerón, the walk down is easy and the walk back up with shopping is a different matter, and I say so. The train is one of the reasons the stretch from Torremolinos to Fuengirola suits a buyer who wants an easy year-round life, and I weigh it against the price of a square metre when we compare areas. Book a call and we can start with how you want to get around. Buying with me sets out how I work.

Common questions