History of rail transport in Spain

The history of rail transport in Spain begins in 1848 with the construction of a railway line between Barcelona and Mataró, in 1852 the first narrow gauge line was built, in 1863 a line reached the Portuguese border. By 1864 the Madrid-Irun line had been opened, and the French border reached.

In 1911 the first line to be electrified was the Gergal-Santa Fe line

In 1941 RENFE was created.

The last steam locomotive was withdrawn in 1975, in 1986 the maximum speed on the railways was raised to 160 km/h, and in 1992 the Madrid Seville high speed line opened, beginning the process of building a nationwide high speed network.

Railway transport was first developed in Northern Europe during the 19th century, spurred not only by rapid economic growth, but also by landscapes favourable to railway construction. Economic difficulties and the presence of some of the most mountainous terrain in Europe ensured that railways arrived relatively late in Spain. The first line to be built in the Peninsula was a short link from Barcelona to Mataró opened in 1848, although by that date a line was already working in Cuba - then part of the Spanish empire. It was not until laws were passed in the 1850s making railway investment more attractive to foreign capital, that railway building on a large scale began.

One major misfortune was the decision, taken at an early stage, that Spain's railways should be built to an unusual broad track gauge of 1,672 mm (5 ft 5 ¹³⁄₁₆ in), or six Castilian feet). Some believe that the choice of gauge was influenced by Spain's hostility to neighbouring France during the 1850s: it was believed that making the Spanish railway network incompatible with that of France would hinder any French invasion. Other sources state that that decision was taken to allow bigger engines that could have enough power to climb the steep passes in the second most mountainous country in Europe. As a result, Portuguese railways were also built to a broad gauge (roughly the same, 1,664 mm or 5 ft 5 ¹⁄₂ in, but rounded to a Portuguese unit). In 1955 Spain and Portugal decided to halve this difference of 8 mm (⁵⁄₁₆ in), and defined their gauge to be 1,668 mm (5 ft 5 ²¹⁄₃₂ in), called Iberian gauge.

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