Ramal da Lousã
| Coimbra – Serpins | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Route length: | 36.9 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1668 mm ( Iberian track ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Ramal da Lousã or Linha da Lousã , in German branch line from Lousã or railway line from Lousã , is a Portuguese railway line between Coimbra and the small town of Serpins to the west of it , near Lousã , in the Coimbra district . The 36.9 kilometer route was opened on December 16, 1906 and is still served by diesel railcars on the same route to this day.
Traffic on the route between Coimbra-A and Serpins has been suspended since 2009 in order to convert it for the Metro Mondego light rail system. However, the construction work was stopped a few months after the start of the Sócrates government , and train traffic has not resumed since then.
history
Planning and start-up
The history of the Ramal da Lousã officially began with the construction announcement in 1873 by King D. Luís I. In 1887 the Portuguese government granted the concession of a narrow-gauge railway from Coimbra via Miranda do Corvo and Lousã to Arganil to the company Fonsecas, Santos e Viana . A little later, the same company proposed to the government, due to economic advantages, to build the line in Iberian broad gauge instead of meter gauge so that it could later be extended to Covilhã . The government rejected the concession, however, and granted it again in the same year, on September 10, 1887, this time to the Companhia do Caminho de Ferro do Mondego for the Coimbra – Arganil line with a total length of 62 kilometers. The railway was to be built in Iberian broad gauge of 1668 millimeters. The Companhia do Caminho de Ferro do Mondego planned to build a second Portuguese east-west railway from the initially small suburban railway as a supplement to the Linha da Beira Alta .
The first construction work on the line began in 1889, but it was mainly concentrated on the Coimbra – Lousã section. The work dragged on, reinforced by the Portuguese economic crisis in 1890, as a result of which the Companhia do Caminho de Ferro do Mondego stopped work entirely. In 1897 the company filed for bankruptcy, and it was not until 1903 that investors succeeded in convincing the royal railway company Companhia Real dos Caminhos de Ferro Portugueses to resume the work that had already begun, so that construction began again from January 1905.
Almost two years later, on December 16, 1906, the Companhia Real dos Caminhos de Ferro Portugueses opened the Coimbra – Lousã section ahead of schedule. The remaining part of the route to Arganil should be supplemented in the following years. Initially, two pairs of trains ran on the new route via Miranda do Corvo to Lousã; the steam trains took 1½ hours to travel between Coimbra and Lousã. Only after protests by the population did the operating company expand its traffic in 1907, and since then the first trains have run from Lousã via Coimbra over the Linha da Beira Alta to the Figueira da Foz lido .
Extension to Serpins
In the following years the Companhia Real dos Caminhos de Ferro Portugueses tried several times to extend the route further via Góis to Arganil. But the change of the Portuguese form of government to democracy, the resulting political instability, the First World War and a severe financial crisis in Portugal prevented an extension westwards.
In 1923 the Companhia Real dos Caminhos de Ferro Portugueses , now renamed Companhia dos Caminhos de Ferro Portugueses , succeeded in obtaining a loan of ten million escudos from the state bank Caixa Geral de Depósitos , confirmed by government decree 8.910 of June 8, 1923. Thereupon the operator concluded a contract with the construction company Companhia Portuguesa . The first construction work on the extension began in August 1924. The Portuguese national railway plan classified the Coimbra – Lousã railway line as part of the meter-gauge national railway network of central Portugal. By decree 14775 of 19 November 1927, the extension should Arganil- Santa Comba Dao while Umspurung be built in the remaining distance meter gauge. The dictatorship installed in Portugal in 1926 meant that almost all projects for the construction of new railway lines in Portugal were abandoned by the government because almost all of the available financial resources went into road construction. This period of uncertainty also affected the progressive construction of the extension to Goís and Arganil. In order to solve the financial problems, the Companhia dos Caminhos de Ferro Portugueses temporarily ended the route in Serpins. This only increased the length of the company by six kilometers; the opening took place on August 10, 1930. In the first years of operation of the Ramal da Lousã , steam trains with wooden wagons drove on the route, mainly built in Esslingen .
Further development in the post-war decades
In the following years relatively little happened, the planned extension to Arganil could not be realized again because of the world economic crisis and the subsequent Second World War, which indirectly affected Portugal. In the 1950s, GE 44-ton diesel locomotives , built by General Electric, increasingly replaced steam locomotives. The locomotives, originally intended for freight traffic, not only ran increasingly on the Ramal da Lousã, but also on the routes in the Lisbon area to Barreiro, Seixal, Pinhal Novo and Montijo. However, the state railway company CP quickly acquired a replacement. In 1954, CP ordered 35 diesel multiple units, 25 for the Portuguese broad gauge and 20 for meter gauge from the Dutch NVAllan & Co. After the first attempts on the Linha do Oeste between Figueira da Foz and Lisbon , the vehicles also came to the Ramal da Lousã. There, in contrast to the steam locomotives and wooden wagons that are still in use in some cases, they meant an increase in passenger comfort. The diesel railcars were given the name Allan in future due to their manufacturer . Until 1999, the Allan railcars from the 1950s dominated the image of the Ramal da Lousã .
In the sixties , the dictatorship of that time under Salazar tried to accommodate the growing unemployment and had job creation measures carried out, including on the Portuguese railways. This resulted in a selection in which the Ramal da Lousã was excluded. The state and the CP justified this with the lack of prospect of increasing passenger numbers and the resulting compelling attitude. The state railway company commissioned the French consultancy Sofrerail , now part of the Systra company , to develop various scenarios from full adjustment to modernization for the suburban railway line between Coimbra and Serpins. The study of the various scenarios presented by Sofrerail in 1969 called for the line to be modernized and, in the medium term, an extension via Góis to Arganil, but implementation of the proposal failed again due to financial problems.
The Ramal da Lousã survived the wave of decommissioning of Portuguese branch lines that began in the early 1970s. In the following years after the Carnation Revolution in Portugal in 1974, there were repeated shutdown scenarios for the suburban railway due to financial crises in the national budget. But Portuguese politicians did not only cite financial problems as the reason for the closure, the aesthetic aspect of the crossing of the Coimbra city center, which is still in place today, also played a role in the considerations. In the mid-seventies, CP used railcars with the name Ferrobus bought from the Spanish RENFE . However, due to strong criticism from the passengers, the Allan diesel railcars returned soon afterwards. In the 1980s, the CP partially renovated the route between the Coimbra Parque train station and Serpins, financed by EC funds. During this phase, individual new breakpoints were also created, including Lobases and Meiral.
Idea of an inner city tunnel
In the following years, the criticism of the passage in downtown Coimbra increased. In order to counteract this, the state railway company CP , at that time also the owner of the state rail network, and the city of Coimbra agreed in 1989 to build a tunnel between the two railway stations Coimbra-A and Coimbra-Parque, the operational terminus of Ramal da Lousã. Three years later, Coimbras City Council proposed the construction of a tram because the previous agreement had not been implemented. This would not only remedy the isolation of the Ramal da Lousã, but also solve Coimbra's inner-city traffic problems. The concelhos concerned (roughly comparable to the German districts) Coimbra, Lousã and Miranda do Corvo agreed with the CP to build this railway, and at the same time entrusted the railway company with the further management of the project, which was to be named Metro Mondego in the future .
In the following years the construction of the tram was delayed, not only due to financial problems, but also due to various political interests. In April 1993, the then Minister for Property Management and the Environment , Luís Valente de Oliveira , decided to modernize the Ramal da Lousã for the later tram route. The cost of the modernization was then estimated at 10.9 billion escudos, about 54.4 million euros. However, this was not realized, the construction of the tram and the opening year and with it the prospect of a better connection to the city center for the residents of the Ramal da Lousã moved further and further back. However, the criticism of the construction of the tram grew noticeably, Carlos Fonseca, professor of mathematics at the University of Coimbra , and Manuel Margarido Tão, geographer and doctor of transport economics at the University of Leeds published a thesis paper in which both the original idea of a tunnel modeled on others Portuguese and Spanish cities favored. The citizens' movement Utentes do Ramal da Lousã , in English customers of the branch line from Lousã , but also the Portuguese union of railway workers, demanded the suspension and the abandonment of any rescheduling for the Ramal da Lousã. Instead, they called for modernization including electrification, the renovation of the stations, the purchase of new vehicles and the extension via Góis to Arganil .
While local and financial politicians, citizens' movements and railway experts were struggling to find an optimal solution to the problems, the state railway company CP took the first step and completely modernized the Allan diesel railcars, which had been on the line up to this time, between 1998 and 1999 undergo. The cars were converted by the state-owned EMEF , which removed the existing two-class facility and replaced it with a single class, removed one of the two toilets, installed a passenger information system and gave the car a new coat of paint. According to CP information, the costs for a modernization of around 100,000 Escudos per car were considerably cheaper than buying new diesel multiple units, at costs between 400,000 and 500,000 Escudos per unit.
In 2005, the social democratic government under Pedro Santana Lopes announced the construction of the tram called Metro Mondego across Europe, but cut the original plan considerably. Instead of adding the entire Ramal da Lousã to the tram network as planned, the six-kilometer section between Lousã and Serpins was to be discontinued and replaced by extensive bus services. At times even the main part of the Ramal da Lousã, between Ceira and Serpins, was in question, this should only be changed if necessary. The concelhos in question, however, refused to participate in the project, so that the subsequent, newly elected socialist government under José Sócrates terminated the competition prematurely in June 2005 due to legal problems.
From tram to tram-train
After months of working out a new project, the socialist government presented a revision of the Metro Mondego project on March 7, 2006 , in which the Ramal da Lousã is now to become part of a future urban-regional “tram-train” network . For the Ramal da Lousã, the published plans meant some changes. The government withdrew the shortening of the route between Lousã and Serpins, and the entire route is now to be used again as the base for the Mondego Metro . The realization of the light rail should take place in two phases, while phase 1 provided for a complete modernization of the Ramal da Lousã, the second phase should include the installation of the rails and stops of the Metro Mondego in the urban area of Coimbra. The modernization of the suburban railway, dated for the years 2007 to 2008 and calculated at a total of 52 million euros, includes not only equipping it with new signaling systems, but also closing some level crossings, changing gauges from Iberian wide to regular gauges , standardizing the platform edges and strengthening measures on bridges and Tunnels. In addition, the Ceira, Lousã and Miranda do Corvo train stations are to serve as so-called interfaces in the future , which means that the stations at each location should enable optimal transfers by merging bus and train nodes. The renovation work also includes the renewal of the lighting as well as the signaling and emergency systems of the three stations. The costs for this alone should amount to 950,000 euros at Lousã station, 2.05 million euros at Miranda do Corvo station, and around two million euros at Ceira station, so a total of around 5.5 million euros.
The first construction work for the modernization began in spring 2007, the first trains of the Mondego Metro are scheduled to run in 2011, and then at the latest the current diesel multiple units will be replaced by electrically operated light rail vehicles. The plans envisage that the light rail trains from Serpins via Lousã, Miranda do Corvo and Ceira to Coimbra-B station will then run, but on the last part of the route on newly laid inner-city rails.
Regardless of the plans for the Mondego Metro, the people of Lousã celebrated the centenary of the suburban railway line in December 2006. On the occasion of this, special trips took place, the mayor of Lousã inaugurated a plaque commemorating the anniversary at Lousã train station. At the Mirando do Corvo train station, the mayor of the concelhos of the same name inaugurated a monument to railway workers.
Cessation of traffic
Traffic on the route between Coimbra-A and Serpins has been suspended since 2009 in order to convert it for the Mondego Metro . However, the construction work was stopped a few months after the start of the Sócrates government , and train traffic has not resumed since then.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Graça Barbosa and Aníbal Rodrigues: Uma ideia com história ... , [An idea with a story ...], Público , March 12, 2006
- ↑ Carlos Foncesa and Manuel M. Tão: Túnel Ferroviário de Coimbra: construa-se! , [Coimbra Railway Tunnel: Build!], Público , May 28, 2005
- ↑ Nelson Morais: CP pode manter-se no Ramal de Lousã , [CP could stay on Ramal de Lousã], Público , February 4, 2002
- ↑ Carlos Cipriano: Comboios Reciclados de Coimbra , [Recycled trains in Coimbra] Público , 22 December 1999
- ↑ Metro dá lugar ao 'tram-train' entre carris do comboio e eléctrico ( Memento of the original of March 3, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , [Metro makes room for 'tram-train' on the tracks between railroad and tram], Diário de Notícias , March 8, 2006
- ^ Carlos Cipriano: Tram-Train em Coimbra substiti Metro Mondego , [ Tram-Train replaces Metro Mondego in Coimbra], Público , March 7, 2006
- ↑ Carlos Cipriano: Governo garante cumprir os prazos , [government guarantees to meet the deadlines] Público , March 25, 2007
literature
- Manuel Fernandes Dias: A história do caminho-de-ferro de Arganil. [The history of the Arganil railway], Jornal de Arganil, Arganil 2007
- Comboios de Portugal (CP) (Ed.): Os caminhos-de-ferro portugueses 1856-2006. [The Portuguese Railways 1856-2006], ISBN 989-619-078-X
Web links
- Website of the project company Metro Mondego (Portuguese, English)
- Ramal da Lousã timetable (pdf, 2.84 MB) ( Memento from October 20, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (Portuguese, English)
- Brief history of the Ramal da Lousã at metromondego.pt (Portuguese)
- Issue of the Lousã magazine Trevim on the occasion of the centenary of Ramal da Lousã (pdf; 2.29 MB) (Portuguese)