Английская Википедия:Barca d'Alva railway station

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The Barca d'Alva railway station was the terminal interface of the Douro Line, until the station's closure in 1988, which used to serve Barca d'Alva and acted as a border station between Portugal and Spain, via the Barca d'Alva–La Fuente de San Esteban railway. It is located in the municipality of Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo, in Portugal.

History

19th century

Planning

The first plans to build a border line with Spain in the north of the country began in the mid-19th century, when peopleШаблон:Who started thinking about building a large commercial port in Leixões, which would not only serve the city of Porto, but also the entire north-western region of the Iberian Peninsula, in competition with the Port of Vigo, which had the same objective. The idea of building a railway line to Galicia was thus begun, although this venture was initially put on hold due to financial difficulties and a greater priority on the part of the link government between Lisbon and Badajoz. A new effort was then made to connect Porto to Spain, but this time to Salamanca, in an attempt to place that city in Porto's area of influence. In 1864, a Luso-Spanish technical commission approved five international connections between Spain and Portugal, including one via Barca d'Alva, La Fregeneda, Vitigudino and Ledesma. It was later decided to build another international line from Salamanca, but this time from Formoso, where it would join the Beira Alta line. Originally, the section to Ciudad Rodrigo was to be common to both lines, but the fork point was changed to Boadilla by a Real orden of 18 August 1880, at the request of the Portuguese government. On 20 May 1881, a Real orden approved the project for the section from Vilar Formoso to Salamanca, but left the choice of the junction point open, a decision that provoked protests from Lisbon, so a new Real orden of 3 November 1881 annulled the previous one and ordered the opening of the tender for the two lines. Although the Portuguese state had set a three-year deadline for completion of the works, the "Société Financière de Paris", the concessionaire for the Beira Alta line, claimed that construction could only be carried out in five years. This was also the opinion of the Association of Civil Engineers, which advocated, instead of continuing the Douro Line, the construction of a new line from Vila Franca das Naves to Régua, which would not only serve the important region to the south of the Douro River, but would also create a new crossing over the river, which would be an alternative to the Maria Pia Bridge.

However, Porto's political and financial interests strongly opposed the idea of the Vilar Formoso line being completed before Barca d'Alva, fearing that traffic from Spain would be displaced to the Port of Figueira da Foz, damaging trade in the city. In fact, at the time, an influential engineer and politician stated that "if the Port is not connected with Salamanca at the Barca de Alva, the economic conditions of the Port will change in such a way that in its deserted streets you will see grass growing like in those of any poor decadent town". The government suggested that a syndicate of banks be formed to finance the construction, so that the tender would not be deserted, since the work would then be handed over to the "Société Financière de Paris", which had a greater interest in completing the line to Vilar Formoso first.

Файл:Mapa dos caminhos de ferro em Portugal 1895.jpg

Map of the railways in 1895, including the international link at Barca d'Alva

Thus, at a meeting on 28 May 1881, called by the Civil Governor, it was decided to form the Sindicato Portuense, supported by several businessmen and bankers from Porto's commerce, and led by Henrique Burnay. Several complicated negotiations with the Société Financière de Paris followed, and a Real orden of 15 June that year announced the opening of the tender and its conditions. The first article stated that "the concessionary company undertakes to carry out at its own expense all the work necessary for the establishment of a railway which, starting from Salamanca and forking at Boadilla, head for the Portuguese border via Ciudad Rodrigo to tie in with the Portuguese Beira Alta line and to another point on the same border at Barca d'Alva, tying in there with the Portuguese Douro line ”. The tender was opened on 12 September and the company represented by Henrique Burnay was the only competitor, which was awarded the concession by a Real orden on the 23rd of that month.

On 4 October of that year, the syndicate asked for the interest guarantee to be applied to the stretch between Boadilla and Vilar Formoso, a request that provoked heated discussions in parliament. Those in favour, led by deputy Correia de Barros, claimed that both lines would be busy and that traffic on the Douro Line would increase, so that by 1902 the burden on the public treasury would end. For their part, the opponents, especially the deputy António Augusto de Aguiar, criticised the very high costs of the work up to Barca d'Alva, pointed out that it was impossible to complete the work within the deadlines presented, and once again put forward the idea of instead building the link between the Douro and Beira Alta lines, previously presented by the Association of Civil Engineers. Nevertheless, the law was promulgated on 22 July 1882, and the contract with the syndicate was signed on 12 October of that year.

On 21 February 1883, the company presented a new study for the stretch from Boadilla to Barca d'Alva, which was approved by a Real orden of 16 August of the same year. After some difficult negotiations over the construction of the Agueda Bridge, the project for the last two kilometres from Boadilla to Barca de Alva was authorised by a Real orden of 28 April 1885 Meanwhile, in January 1885, the union created a company in Spain, the Compañía del Ferrocarril de Salamanca a la Frontera Portuguesa, which would have the support of the Portuguese and Spanish governments and would be responsible for building and operating the lines in Spain.

Inauguration

Файл:Horarios Dezembro 1914 - GazetaCF 647 1914.jpg

Timetables of all trains in Portugal in December 1914. Barca d'Alva was served by only two trains, one in each direction

The section to Vilar Formoso went into service on 5 June 1886, while the branch to Barca d'Alva reached Lumbrales on 25 July 1887 and was completed on 6 December of that year. On the Portuguese side, the section from Tua to Pocinho opened for operation on 10 January 1887, and the line reached Côa on 5 May. On 2 December, work was completed on the section from Pocinho to Barca d'Alva, and this section was opened on 9 December, along with the international link to Salamanca.

In this way, it took around six years to get both sections to Barca d'Alva, longer than the three years that had been planned by the state and the five years that had been considered indispensable by the Société Financière de Paris. These delays led to successive recourse to credit in Paris, which was obtained in increasingly poor conditions and mostly through the influence of the Portuguese government. On the other hand, in the very first years it was realized that the poor income from the lines was insufficient to cover even the expenses, which led to the bankruptcy of the Porto's syndicate, which was replaced by the Companhia das Docas do Porto e dos Caminhos de Ferro Peninsulares, formed in 1889. However, this process was resisted by the Spanish government, which succeeded in making the Compañía del Ferrocarril de Salamanca a la Frontera Portuguesa independent.

20th century

In the first half of the 20th century, the restaurant in the Barca d'Alva station became famous for the quality of its service, under the direction of Germano Mielgo.

1900s and 1910s

Файл:Estação Barca d'Alva.jpg

Barca d'Alva station in its early years

In 1901, there was still no road bridge over the Douro River near the station, and Estrada Real no. 53 (later called EN221), which connected the station to various towns on the south bank of the Douro, was still under construction. At the end of 1901, the director of the Minho and Douro Division of the Portuguese State Railways foresaw the introduction of first-class carriages on services between this station and Porto. Later in 1905, the bridge over the Douro had already been built, and repairs to the road between this bridge and the town of Freixo de Espada à Cinta were approved.

In 1904, the Portuguese State Railways administration organised a fast train, passing through Barca d'Alva, where it left some of its rolling stock, however, this train usually ran almost empty from the Régua, due to the lack of road connections to the stations from that point. This service, which ran three times a week in each direction, was suspended in 1914 due to the outbreak of the First World War, and resumed in 1919, but shortly afterwards was definitively cancelled due to a lack of fuel and the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. In 1937, trains 751 and 752 were created from Porto to Salamanca, which also ran three times a week in each direction, connecting Porto to Barca d'Alva in just over 4 hours. These services were interrupted due to the outbreak of World War II. In January 1905, an agreement had already been approved between the Salamanca Company and the Portuguese State Railways to run trains in Barca d'Alva.

In 1913, the Barca d'Alva station was part of several stagecoach routes that went to Almeida, Castelo Rodrigo, Escalhão, Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo, Pinhel, Reigada and Vilar Torpim. Later, the service between Barca d'Alva and Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo was operated by bus.

1920s and 1930s

Файл:Bilheteira de colchões... (Barca dAlvas old ticket booth) (3776322234).jpg

Old ticket booth inside the Barca d'Alva station, 2009

On 12 July 1924, a Real orden established a new regime for the organisation of the Spanish railways, which called for the concentration of lines into groups, including the Compañía del Ferrocarril de Salamanca a la Frontera Portuguesa. This company was integrated into the Compañía Nacional de los Ferrocarriles del Oeste, which was later incorporated into the Red Nacional de los Ferrocarriles Españoles.

In 1933, the Portuguese Railway Company carried out various repairs and improvements to the station's passenger building, and had repairs carried out again the following year. In 1939, the railway link through Barca d'Alva was re-established and it was also reopened.

1950s and 1960s

The Gazeta dos Caminhos de Ferro of 16 February 1950 reported that international trains would be re-established on the line on 14 May of that year, and that the Portuguese Railway Company and the Red Nacional de Ferrocarriles Españoles were planning to create direct carriages from Porto to La Fuente de San Esteban, in order to avoid the need for transhipment at Barca d'Alva.

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Former roundabout and station carriage house, in 2014

In the mid-1950s, the road bridge next to Barca d'Alva was inaugurated, improving access to the station. Before the bridge was built, the Douro was crossed by boat. One of the regular users of this system was the writer Guerra Junqueiro, who would take the train to Barca d'Alva and then cross the river to his estate on the other bank, the Quinta da Batoca. Until then, the only road access to the station and the town of Barca d'Alva was a road to Escalhão. With the bridge, Barca d'Alva became connected to Torre de Moncorvo and Freixo de Espada à Cinta.

In 1956, changes were made to the Spanish train timetables which greatly affected traffic in Barca d'Alva, as there was no longer any correspondence between national and international trains, forcing passengers to spend the night at the station or travel by road to Vilar Formoso, where they could catch the Sud Express. This modification came about at the same time as the Spanish government was investing heavily in the line through Vilar Formoso, including adapting it for higher-speed trains, and expanding the border town of Fuentes de Oñoro, which is on the other side of Vilar Formoso.

Файл:Barca d'Alva Train Station.jpg

Barca d'Alva station, seen from the street, in 1995

In the 1960s, direct services from Porto to Salamanca were resumed, using CP Class 0400 automotives.

Decline and closure

The Douro Line and its international connection never reached the level of demand that was expected, both nationally and internationally, and also failed to attract goods from the Salamanca plateau to the Port of Leixões. On the other hand, the border line had a large number of metal bridges, which would be very expensive to replace. Together, these factors predicted the closure of the international section as early as the middle of the 20th century. At the time, there was already support for keeping the line in Portugal, due to the potential of the Douro Line as a tourist destination, together with the promotion of Port wine.

In 1979, the company Red Nacional de los Ferrocarriles Españoles operated a railcar Ferrobus between Barca d'Alva and La Fuente de San Esteban.

Файл:Barca d’Alva train station 13.JPG

Former water tower, in 2014

In 1984, the Spanish state decided to close the section between La Fuente de San Esteban and La Fregeneda, also leaving the international section between the latter town and Barca d'Alva without any services. As planned, it came to fruition on 1 January 1985.

In 1988, the section between Pocinho and Barca d'Alva was closed. The station closed on 2 October 1988.Шаблон:Citation needed

21st Century

In 2006, the Asociación Cultural Camino de Hierro, based in Salamanca, was planning the rehabilitation of the line from Fuente de San Esteban to Barca d'Alva, for tourism purposes. The estimated value of the work would be around 24 million euros, which would be spent on safety measures and the renovation of the railway track and stations. That institution also considered reopening the section to Pocinho, so that tourist trains could connect to cruises coming from Porto.

In September 2008, Via Libre magazine reported that the Coordination Commission for the Northern Region of Portugal was looking for investors for steam traction tourist trains on the route between Pocinho and Barca d'Alva, a project that would cost around 600,000 euros. On the other hand, the Rede Ferroviária Nacional, which at the time managed the railway infrastructure in Portugal, was planning to turn that section into a greenway.

On 9 January 2020, a delegation led by Luís Pedro Martins, president of Tourism in Porto and the North of Portugal, delivered a petition to the Portuguese Parliament calling for the entire Douro Line to be refurbished and for the section to the Spanish border to be reopened. Luís Pedro Martins argued that this measure would bring great benefits to tourism, as it would allow visitors to better explore the region. On the other hand, it would be a major investment in an inland area of the country, thus defying the tendency to develop mainly the coastal strip, and would be part of a major strategy to promote the Douro Wine Region as a World Heritage Site. The delegation also included representatives from the municipalities of Peso da Régua, Torre de Moncorvo and Sabrosa and the Douro Intermunicipal Community, as well as representatives from the Liga dos Amigos do Douro Património Mundial, of the Douro Museum Foundation and other organisations from the north of the country. That month, the Minister for Infrastructure and Housing, Pedro Nuno Santos, gave an interview to the newspaper Público, in which he discussed the implementation of a national railway plan, which should include the reopening and modernisation of several sections of closed railway track, including the one from Pocinho to Barca d'Alva, which would be electrified.

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The station's former goods yard, in 2014

Literary references

The station appears in the book The City and the Mountains, by Eça de Queirós:

See also

• Barca d'Alva
• Douro Line
• Barca d'Alva–La Fuente de San Esteban railway
• Comboios de Portugal
• Infraestruturas de Portugal
• Rail transport in Portugal
• History of rail transport in Portugal

Bibliography

• Шаблон:Cite book
• Шаблон:Cite book
• Шаблон:Cite book

Recommended reading

• Шаблон:Cite book
• Шаблон:Cite book
• Шаблон:Cite book
• Шаблон:Cite book

External links

• Page with photos of Barca d'Alva Station, on the Railfaneurope website
• Page about Barca d'Alva Station, on the Wikimapia website