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Your Source of News and Information about the Railways of Majorca
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The first railway in Majorca, the FC de Mallorca, was
opened in February 1875, between Palma, the capital city of Majorca and Inca.
It was built with
mostly British equipment to 3ft gauge, allowing the use of readily
available British-made steam locomotives and rolling stock, thus keeping
down costs. Over the next few years further routes and extensions were
built to Arta, via Manacor; La Puebla (now called Sa Pobla); Felanitx
(from Santa Maria on the Palma-Inca line) and Santanyi. None of these,
with the exception of the original Palma-Inca line which has been
modernised and converted to metre-gauge using diesel powered multiple
units, remains in service and most have all but disappeared but the
route from Inca to Sa Pobla was re-opened in 2001 after having
been closed since 1981. It has also been re-laid to metre-gauge and it
is planned to be extended to Alcudia on the North-East coast. The
Majorcan government has also re-opened the Inca to Manacor line, which
was subsequently closed again for several months,
following the collapse of an embankment wall. It is also finalising the planned
construction of a new (mostly underground) metro to link
Palma with the UIB University. There is presently much talk of a tramway to link Palma to
Arenal and possibly the airport. A new underground terminus station and transport hub is being constructed in Palma from which the government's TIB (Transport de les Illes Balears) lines and possibly even the Sóller Railway's tracks (see next section) will run in tunnels to the outskirts of the City before emerging into the Majorcan sunlight to continue their journeys..
Much of this information
was gleaned from Giles Barnabe's excellent book "The Railways and
Tramways of Majorca", published by Plateway Press ISBN 1 1871980 13 5
which is unfortunately out of print but can sometimes be got second-hand
from the better
railway book dealers. I cannot recommend this book too highly and am
grateful to Giles Barnabe for the inspiration his book has given me. Giles' new
book, entitled "Rails Through Majorca", was published in August 2003 by
Plateway Press. The ISBN number is 1 871980 51 8 and the price is £21.95
+ p&p. Plateway press can be found on http://www.plateway.co.uk/, the
book has 248 pages with more than 200 photographs, maps, diagrams and
scale drawings - well worth the expense and an absolute must for
anybody who wants to know more about the Majorcan Railways than this website
could possibly hope to provide !!
Barry
Emmott |
The other railway system in Majorca is the Sóller Railway
which was constructed between Sóller on the North coast and Palma with
the intention of facilitating the transport of the agricultural produce
of the Sóller area to the markets of Palma. Previously this produce had
to be transported over the Sierra de Alfabia mountain range by cart or
shipped round the island by sea from Puerto de Sóller. This railway, built
with money raised by the people of the Sóller valley, was made possible
by the construction of a tunnel through the Sierra de Alfabia mountains.
It has several tunnels, an impressive five-arch viaduct and was also
built to 3ft gauge, opening to the public in April 1912, using steam
locomotive power. A 3ft gauge electric tramway from Sóller to the coast at Puerto de
Sóller was connected to the railway and opened the following year. In
1929 the main line had been converted to electric traction and to this
day uses the original rolling stock which features an attractive "old
west" appearance, being all wooden-clad. The motor coaches and the
nature of the track are reminiscent of the early days of the Swiss
Rhaetian Railway but with a definitely Mediterranean
influence.
© Barry Emmott, November 2005