Transcantábrico
The Transcantábrico crosses northern Spain, along the Bay of Biscay. It is the oldest of Spain's tourist trains, managed by the Spanish public company FEVE since its inauguration in 1983 until 2012, when FEVE disappeared and Renfe Operadora took over.
With the Transcantábrico, FEVE (Narrow Gauge Railways) created the first hotel-train in Spain. The original idea was to create a tourist train, emulating the legendary Orient Express, which would use FEVE's tracks in northern Spain. The special feature of this train is that, unlike other tourist trains, it operates on 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) gauge track.
It opened for business on 30 July 1983 with an inaugural trip between La Robla and Cistierna in Leon. Its original composition was three Pullman lounge cars built in the UK in 1923 (pub, bar and lounge), 4 bunk bed cars, a generator car and a service car for the crew.
As of 2015[update] there are 2 trains, the Classic and the Luxury, the latter is considered the best tourist train in the world.
For the first years it travelled between Leon and Ferrol (through Bilbao), until the closure of the Leon - Bilbao (Ferrocarril de La Robla) line, when it then travelled between Bilbao and Ferrol. After the reopening of the La Robla line in 2003, it returned to original route. In 2009 new special services were introduced from San Sebastián to Santiago de Compostela and from 2010 services were made regular to/from San Sebastian using this Basque Railway Network from Basauri.
Since 2011 there is also the Transcantábrico Luxury, a new tourist train that runs between San Sebastian and Santiago de Compostela, while the former tourist train was renamed Transcantábrico Classic, maintaining the traditional route between Leon and Ferrol (through Bilbao).
As of 2015[update] there are 2 routes operating regular services from March until October:
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Wikipedia