The points system is having its second birthday this month. The free daily newspaper Qué! reports that since Spain instituted the points system in 2006, 4.1 million points have been taken away and 7,162 people have completely lost their licences. Points are lost by any number of reasons, including speeding, running red lights, driving without a seatbelt and drunk driving. During the course of this year, there have been 244 less deaths as consequence of driving accidents than last year, a 20% decrease.

Spanish lawmakers must see this as an opportunity to step up the safe driving campaign at the same time as they tweak other aspects of the traffic law. Up until now, new drivers have started with 8 points, while those who have driven for 3+ years started out with 12. Starting next July (2009), those who haven’t committed any driving infractions in 3 years will be rewarded with two additional points, bringing the maximum total up to 14. Keep up the safe driving folks… just because we get a few extra points doesn’t mean we should drive pedal to the metal now.

A group of businessmen are forming a new airline, Andalus Líneas Aéreas, with the aim of offering cheap, direct flights to the Caribbean by December, and later open up the offerings to popular demand, most likely destinations in South/Central America and Morocco. Several of these venture capitalists were executives in the former Air Madrid airline which – according to the new company’s headman Fernando Guerrero – failed because it was overtaken by a company with no experience in the sector. He stresses that this new airline is the first truly Andalusian airline, since they will be based out of the Malaga Airport and acting in the interest of Andalusians. He says Andalus aims to become "the airline that meets the mobility needs of every Andalucian, who can fly to major tourist destinations virtually from their doorstep," without having to go through larger cities like Madrid and Barcelona.

Andalus officially presented their business venture to the public on May 30 at EUROAL 2008, an international tourism convention held in Torremolinos. They have invested 12 million Euros (9.5 million pounds) in this multi-phase endeavour, and will start with a staff of 97 employees, 2 short/medium-range planes and 1 long-range plane.

If you’re looking to get a Spanish driving licence, validate or trade in your U.K. licence, or other vehicle-related proceedings, at some point you’ll end up at the Tráfico offices. As of recently, the offices for Malaga have moved to a new spot near the university neighbourhood Teatinos and next-door to the large convention hall, the Palacio de Ferias y Congresos. (Address: Max Estrella, 12. You can catch a bus up there from the centre - look for the number 4 line on the Paseo del Parque, the tree-lined street. Trafico will be the last stop on the line. Visit our Connections page to find other bus routes on the EMT website.) The old Trafico offices were on Calle Mauricio Moro Pareto, right next to the Larios shopping centre, which is also called Eroski because of the supermarket on the bottom floor.

The other major news of note is they announced their change to reduced summer hours, 8:30 am - 1:30 pm, Monday-Friday. Summer? They normally don’t change these hours until June! Regardless, these hours will be in effect until halfway through September, so those who have morning work hours will have to plan carefully. One more thing about September — many changes will be taking place. Spain will be transforming their licence exam process, making it tougher and modernizing it (from a written to computer version), as well as splitting the motorbike licences into 3 classes, as opposed to the two current ones.

Get ready to experience a bit of local culture, and best of all: FREE!!! If you haven’t yet heard the buzz, Malaga is one of several cities vying for the position of Cultural Capital of Europe 2016. (Organizers have already put up a flood of blue posters advertising for this campaign.) So, this event is one more in the list of steps the city is taking to impress the judges who will review all the relevant factors starting in 2012. On 10 May, Malaga will host its first-ever "Noche en Blanco," a night of concerts, theatre and other special exhibitions and events. This same tradition is celebrated in Paris, Madrid, Brussels and Rome on various nights during the year.

One headliner event is the enactment of Shakespeare’s King Lear in the Teatro Cervantes, and they’re giving away 100 free invites to this performance starting this morning at 09:00, in the City Archives (Archivo Municipal). Don’t worry if you don’t get into this, as there is plenty else: guided visits of Picasso’s birthplace and the Alcazaba fortress, concerts at the Gibralfaro castle and downtown squares, and much more, a total of 30 events. Did I mention this is all free? Go ahead, enjoy it! You can find more specific details at the info point at the head of Calle Larios (Malaga city centre).

If you’re expecting to hire a car in Malaga or anywhere else in Spain really, consider yourself forewarned. First, the hard facts: recently reformed penal codes require an offence charge for drivers caught passing the speed limits by 60 km/h within city limits or by 80 km/h on the highway. This kind of charge can carry from 3 to 6 months jail time, no laughing matter to say the least. And even if you’re only speeding marginally, according to the Spanish points system, they’ll also drain your licence of between 2 and 6 points as well. (Drivers with a clean record generally start out with 12 points.)

Thought that was it? Wait, there’s more! Beginning yesterday, the government has implemented a two-week bout of radar checkpoints across the country. They’re setting them up on secondary highways, along with safety reminders on electronic panels and radio messages. In Malaga alone, they’re planning to control about 50,000 vehicles, an average of about 3,000 a day.

The Spanish authorities are doing a notable job of cracking down on irresponsible behaviour on the road, with the intention of reducing the number of accidents. So before you get into speed-demon mode behind the wheel of your car hire, think twice. Or even three times… cause it will certainly be worth your while!

This weekend, follow the signs to "La Feria de los Pueblos y las Ciudades de Málaga," your ticket to see and even try out some local flavours. Venue: the Palacio de Ferias y Congresos, the large exhibition building right off the highway in Malaga, near the intersection of the A-7 ring road and the Cartama highway. Entrance is free, and you’ll get a glimpse of the small-town life from around the Malaga province, including booths about bullfighting, flamenco and plenty of food samples. From the 180+ exhibitors, you’ll see typical olive oils, wines, cheeses, sausages and even more unique malagueño items like sweet wine, almond cakes, fig bread, raisins, olives and lard-cooked pork… and most of these you can try out! The fair opened on Thursday and continues until Sunday – open from 11am-8:30pm – and of course you can also use this chance to purchase these items and more. Besides the cultural, they’ve also made an effort to bring in a wider audience with offerings for youngin’s: a stand for playing Wii, a comic strip/book workshop, and a number of theatre and juggling acts. Nothing to lose, come check it out! Oh and if you need a ride, skip the uncertainty of Malaga’s taxis and call our partner MalagaTaxis.co.uk – a courteous, multilingual driver will get you there in a flash.

An update to my last post: along with the closing of both main downtown Malaga stations, the schedule is shifting a bit as well. Be prepared to hop your normal train about 10 minutes ahead of schedule, since at least for the endpoints of the C1 line this is the supposed difference in schedule. But don’t get your hopes up yet of an actual improvement in the train frequency – for now the trains will still only come by every 30 minutes. The Minister of Public Works declared back in 2005 that we would be seeing trains every 20 minutes once the stretch between Benalmadena and Fuengirola was widened, but that still only remains a possibility by the end of this year. (The reason: they say new houses are in the way of this happening, houses that weren’t shown in the original expansion plans.) Compare this to more streamlined timetables such as in Barcelona, Madrid, Seville and San Sebastian, where they hone down the frequency to as low as 5 and 10 minutes at peak times.

The next big change will probably come with the completion of the airport reforms, projected for 2010. This will include a new train station actually located below the new passenger terminal in the Malaga airport, allowing passengers to connect directly from their flight to the AVE (long-range) or Cercanias (regional) trains. The rerouted C1 line of Cercanias will go under the new runway, and rejoin its original route further on. By this time it’s expected that this line will run every 15 minutes or even less, accommodating business travellers like myself and surely making tourists’ lives easier!

If you’re reading this, it’s likely you use Renfe’s Cercanías train to go somewhere in between Fuengirola and Malaga. But hang on to your hat – according to the daily 20 minutos, not only is the station closing in the city centre (Centro-Alameda), but also the one inside the Renfe train station, Málaga-Renfe. The service will still run, but the only access for downtown Malaga will be through the main train station, where Cercanias will share track space with the AVE trains. If you’re not familiar with this station, referred to as Estación Maria Zambrano or simply the Renfe, it is located inside the Vialia shopping centre, and contains both the large station for long-range trains and the Cercanias regional train stop. It’s about a 15-minute walk from downtown Malaga (click on the map for walking directions).

Starting a week from today, April 2, both downtown stations will be closed down for an indeterminate period for improvements on the loading platforms and access tunnels. This means a large majority of the people who normally use the downtown stop, totaling around 8,000 daily, will be added to the over 4,000 already using the Renfe stop. The Spanish rail authority Adif won’t set an end date for the project, but its magnitude means changes will probably take at least a year. A company rep commented that "the important thing is that the clients know it’s closing," yet you can only find a few small signs in the centre station. Doesn’t sound like it’s a big priority of theirs, especially if it took a reader tipping off a free newspaper for the press to get word - something just doesn’t add up. Maybe if we make enough fuss about it, we’ll see it in the headlines tomorrow!

VuelosBaratos – which allows travellers to quickly compare flight deals from a ton of other travel sites – ranked over 50,000 searches on their site for trips during the Easter week. Note this just takes searches into account, not actual reservations, so take this study for what it’s worth. But it’s interesting to notice how many Spanish Internet bargain shoppers opted for home turf instead of other European destinations or even further out: 15 out of the top 20 are national. Of course those that didn’t have the envied 9-day stretch of vacation mostly stuck close to home for their kick-back days, as in Andalucia the only official days off were Thursday and Friday. An interesting trend I noticed from this study: inlanders from Madrid, Seville and Granada headed to the coasts and vice-versa: coastal residents from Barcelona and Malaga escaped to the interior. You’d think we weren’t content with the natural surroundings we see every day!

But regardless, the slowing economy made a clear dent in last week’s travels, as travellers didn’t opt for many long-haul trips beyond the relatively cheaper options of New York and Cuba. Many hotels and restaurants also noted much lower profits than expected for such a normally peak week. Sounds to me like the Spanish are cinching up their belts a bit and spending instead on necessities.

Don’t think the Spanish airline execs didn’t pay attention in economy class. If they were dozing off, they were dreaming of ways to beat out the competition, and still are. With Iberia’s announcement of a new business-class offering for Malaga-Madrid, we can say they’re recognizing AVE’s success in the new high-speed train on this same route. Or we can say they’re just offering a new product for the benefit of the common good, but hey – we would only be putting blinders on, since informed travellers are well aware of the options and many have chosen the AVE lately.

Iberia seems to be targeting the work world with this new fare class, available for 125.37 € (~96 £) for a one-way trip, and a reduced round-trip of 226.74 € (~174 £). They claim these kinds of tickets will be available for purchase from their website (iberia.com) even on the day of the flight, making it simple for workers with quickly-changing agendas to keep up. Compare these with Renfe’s AVE one-way tickets, which float around 115 € and 135 € for their business (preferente) and first class (club) tickets, respectively.

Of course Iberia and Renfe both have economy-class tickets for this trajectory, as low as 32 € and 68 € for one-way trips. I couldn’t find any that low on Iberia’s site, but surely it has much to do with hi/lo seasons, something which doesn’t seem to affect the train system nearly as much.