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Discovering Cartagena

More Articles By Phillip Bruce www.raxomnium.com

The Story Of The Railways

Spain was relatively late in starting development of a railway system in the 19^th century and the first train line didn’t operate regularly between Cartagena and Murcia until April 27, 1865.

The first proposals to set up railways in Murcia came in 1845 when a licence was granted to a French company to build a line between Murcia and Figueras, which was the start of the link running to Valencia and Barcelona. Railway fever then hit Spain and a proper network started to develop. In 1851 studies were started for a line to run from Cartagena to Albacete, north of Murcia.

In1855 legislation was passed, the Ley General de Ferrocarriles, which established a national network with the aim of linking Madrid with the Mediterranean by extending the line from the capital to Aranjuez as far as Alicante.

There was also a need to provide a rail link to the important arsenal and dockyards of Cartagena. Plans were made to run the Albacete line through the Mundo and Segura river valleys. There were four sections, Albacete to Hellín, Hellín to Cieza, Cieza to Murcia, and Murcia to Cartagena. The plans were approved in June, 1856, and the concession was given to the president of the Madrid-Zaragoza-Alicante railway. The first trains started to run between Cartagena and Murcia in 1863. When the line fully opened, 240 kilometres of track had been laid.

Political upheaval put the brakes on railway development but by later the rail line near the coast linked Alicante and Murcia. The branch line connecting Villena-Alcoy and Yecla was completed in 1882. Two years later railways had connected almost the whole of southeastern Spain.

However, there was no link south from Murcia to the railways of Andalucia and local town halls and businessmen pressed hard for this to be rectified. There was a particular desire to gain access to the important mineral region of Águilas. For more on this line see the article on the Great Southern of Spain Railway.

In 1885 a solution was finally worked out to provide the link to the south. The line was divided into three phases, Alcantarilla to Lorca, Lorca to Baza-Águilas, and Baza to Guadix. These were given to a Barcelona company, a French company and one from Escoriaza. The Great Southern line went to R. Roberts and Berry. Later it was managed by J. Higgins. In April 1890 the Águilas to Almendricos section was opened and three months later the link to Lorca was established. Later the Granada Railway Company took over and ran the railway until the civil War.

Another railway was in 1919 to link Murcia and Caravaca. The line of this railway still exists and it is being renovated as a long-distance walkway.

No rail link now exists to connect Murcia with Andalucia, which seems very strange. Apparently, the line was closed some time ago. There are calls for it to be reopened so that there is again a rail link running right along Spain’s Mediterranean coast.

The regional government is constantly making moves to improve services on existing routes. In particular, it is constantly pressing for high-speed AVE trains to be provided for the region.

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