Este tramo del AVE que conectará Barcelona y la localidad gerundense de Figueres, una de las zonas más turísticas de Cataluña, se estima que será utilizado por un total de 2,9 millones de viajeros a lo largo del 2012.

In Ronda some locals tell me with confidence that AVE trains will never come to the town or pass beyond to Algeciras.

And they are right. They will not come to the town, but instead will come to the small hamlet of La Indiana in the valley below, where a brand new train station will be built.

It will be almost half way along a 72km double-track route between Algeciras and Antequera and in 2008 an environmental impact study was undertaken by two companies.

Labelled Proyecto 776, the only map ever produced was a rough sketch displayed by the Ministerio de Fomento to announce it at a press conference two years ago.

Going by this map it will go through Almargen, Alcala del Valle, Setenil and through El Llano de la Cruz, the valley where I live.

It does make geographical sense and many AVE stations are built on the outskirts such as at Segovia, for obvious reasons.

It is rumoured that the decided route will be made public in January, 2010, with the completion of the works by around 2016.

AVE routes require wide radius corners and shallow gradients, as well as measures to reduce noise and other environmental impacts.

The most severe gradients are about 3.5 per cent, so for the new route a tunnel would be required under a large part of my valley near Ronda.

This is good news as tunnels have the advantage of reducing land purchase costs and minimising environmental impacts, provided they don´t hit aquifers, as they did near Valle de Abdalajis.

My guess is that it will actually avoid my valley altogether and go into the next one, Ronda la Vieja, via a tunnel through the Sierra de Salinas. We shall have to wait and see.

Anyone suggesting that the rail route south from Ronda through Cortes is too difficult to upgrade to medium-speed AVE standards should consider the present construction of the 350 kmh rail route between Barcelona and Perpignan through the Pyrenees.