Ferrocarril de Langreo

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The Ferrocarril de Langreo railway is a narrow-gauge railway line in the autonomous Spanish region of Asturias , which connects the city of Gijón with the municipality of Laviana and runs through the districts of Siero and Langreo . The name of the railway line refers to the municipality of Langreo, as the end point of the railway line was originally located in this municipality. However, the railway line was extended to today's end point in Laviana in the 19th century.

history

Opening of the Ferrocarril de Langreo in 1846

The line was opened in 1846 to provide a rail link between the port of Gijón and the municipality of Langreo. Langreo is located in a mining region and a new railway line should make it possible in particular to transport raw materials to the coast in order to load them onto ships and export them by sea. Originally, rail traffic was handled by a specially founded railway company , which was also called Ferrocarril de Langreo . The track width at that time was 1432 millimeters, so that the tracks were almost the width of a standard gauge railway. However, no rolling stock that was designed for tracks in the international standard gauge could be used here.

In the 1960s, Asturias, as in many other European mining regions, experienced a crisis, as a result of which the mining sector has continuously lost economic importance to this day. As a result, the railway line was also required to a lesser extent for transporting raw materials. The increasingly run-down railway line was taken over by the state railway company FEVE in 1972 , as were numerous narrow-gauge railways in all regions of Spain, which were previously mostly operated by private railway companies. Between 1983 and 1984, the line was rebuilt to a gauge of 1000 millimeters , thus enabling a direct connection to the other rail lines operated by FEVE in northern Spain.

business

Today, the route plays a role primarily in passenger transport and is integrated as line F5 into the S-Bahn system of the Asturias region, which runs with modern railcars between the main train station in the city of Gijón and Laviana.

Freight traffic still takes place on the route to a lesser extent, whereby primarily raw materials are no longer transported to the port in Gijón, but goods of various types between various industrial companies with siding .

Route

The route begins at the port of El Musel in the Spanish city of Gijón, although there is no passenger traffic for the first few kilometers of the route. In the city center there is a dead end station with several tracks in meter gauge and Iberian broad gauge, where all passenger rail lines begin. The trains of the S-Bahn line F5 are also introduced to this railway line through a branch line. There are initially a few stops in the city on the railway line. The route then leads to the community of Siero , which also serves several stops. In the El Berron district, the railway line crosses the Basque-Asturian railway , which runs from Bilbao to Oviedo at the same level, with connecting curves enabling a transition between the two lines. The train continues through the districts of Noreña , Langreo , San Martín del Rey Aurelio and Laviana , where it serves various stops. In Langreo, a broad-gauge railway line from Oviedo joins the line that runs parallel to the narrow-gauge line as far as El Entrego station . On this runs u. a. the S-Bahn line C-2 operated by RENFE .

Web links

literature

  • Narrow gauge rails through the Cordillera , Mike Bent, Semaphore Press, 1998, ISBN 1902298004
  • El Langreo: Del carbón al Metrotrén: 150 años moviendo Asturias , FEVE, Ministerio de Fomento, Madrid, 2002
  • La Compañía del Ferrocarril de Langreo en Asturias: estaciones e infraestructuras (1846-1972) , Jose María Flores Suárez, Trea, Gijón, 2004, ISBN 84-9704-124-0
  • La vía estrecha en Asturias: ingeniería y construcción, 1844-1972 , Mercedes López García, Gran Enciclopedia Asturiana, Gijón, 1995, ISBN 84-7286-349-2