FEVE

Ferrocarriles de Vía Estrecha (Eng. " narrow gauge railway " ), abbreviated feve, was a Spanish railway company with a meter gauge network, which was incorporated in government saving measures in the Renfe Operadora and the infrastructure manager ADIF January 1, 2013.

• 4.1 Two - rail system in Leon
• 4.2 railway from Matallana after Vegacevera
• 4.3 S-Bahn tunnel in Gijón Jovellanos between the train station and the district Cabuenes
• 4.4 Complete electrification between Bilbao and Oviedo
• 4.5 Extension of the Collanzo after Felechosa
• 4.6 Conversion of the railway line Cartagena - Los Nietos in a light rail

Network

The network of former feve comprises about 1,200 km meter gauge. The main route runs along the north coast of Spain from Bilbao, Santander and Oviedo to Ferrol. It crosses while the autonomous communities Basque Country, Cantabria, Asturias and Galicia and runs largely parallel to the northern route of the pilgrimage, the Camino del Norte. On this route operates in summer also a hotel train called Transcantábrico that allows travelers an eight- day tour along the Cantabrian Sea.

Another route connects the cities of Bilbao and León, but with only one connection per day and a journey time of about six hours. This line was closed in the 1990s due to technical defects. In 2003, the operation was resumed after some remedial measures. ( see main article: Ferrocarril de La Robla ) A short distance without connection to the rest of the network in the north of Spain in the region Murcia exists between Cartagena and Los Nietos.

In addition to the main routes, there are branch lines in the regions of Cantabria and Asturias, which are used for the S -Bahn - operation as well as a few key routes for connections of industrial sites, mines and ports for freight. This is partly to routes that can no longer be used because of technical deficiencies in passenger traffic.

Operation

The feve was a state-owned enterprise and was operator of passenger and freight transport; the operation is now inherited from Renfe. The fastest route network is frequented in the immediate vicinity of the cities of Oviedo and Gijón. There, in the center of Asturias, and on the S -Bahn lines from Santander and Bilbao, the network is electrified and partially developed multiple fronts.

Passenger

Or feve, Renfe operates S -Bahn lines in the Greater Bilbao, Santander, Asturias, León and Ferrol. In León and Ferrol, the network is not electrified and implemented the S-Bahn operating with diesel trains. On the network sections with S-Bahn trains operating normally according to need every fifteen minutes to every hour. Moreover operate diesel-powered regional trains between these centers, where there are usually only a few connections per day. These hold in regions with commuter train operating at only a few, the more important stations. In liner shipping railcars are used exclusively. In addition, there are irregular nostalgia and tourist trips where very different, mostly locomotive-hauled passenger trains are used. In addition to the luxury train Transcantabrico run special trains in weekend excursions to different sights, the tickets are usually sold as part of package deals where meals and entrance fees are included. For taking place excursions advertised in the stations on leaflets.

Freight traffic

The narrow-gauge railway plays an important role in the northern Spanish freight. Promoted, especially in mines raw materials are transported for further processing in heavy industrial operations. For the purpose of freight transport are in feve - route network also branches that are not operated in passenger transport. The company also provides a goods transport outside their network. The network of the Basque operator EuskoTren is connected by a transition track in Bilbao on its own network. A freight transport to other Spanish regions and foreign countries is made possible by narrow gauge freight cars are charged by low-loader wagons on freight trains other gauges. This concept also use other narrow gauge railways in freight transport.

History

When you on the Iberian Peninsula to the railway introduced, it was decided finally, a broad gauge of 1674 mm ( from 1955 then 1668 mm) to accept as the norm to ensure by wider features a more stable running and more goods and people in a train be able to transport. In addition to all the advantages of the wide track format but also disadvantages were discovered, in particular the difficulty to build a broad-gauge plug by mountains and the larger space requirements. As a consequence, several independent narrow gauge lines were built in Spain parallel to the wide track infrastructure, most of which were operated by small private companies. Of the decommissioning waves in the 1960s and 1970s, Spain was also affected. The private railway companies were present threatened by a wave of bankruptcies. To prevent a large proportion of rail transport would be paralyzed by the operator bankruptcies, firstly founded feve state company with the aim to implement this operator in trust. Unprofitable routes were shut down there. In the meantime, however, some narrow-gauge lines were taken over again by regional operating companies and are in a stable condition. These include the SFM on Majorca, EuskoTren in the Basque Country, Catalonia and FGC in FGV in Valencia. The narrow-gauge lines in the metropolitan area of Madrid were adopted by the State Railways RENFE, C -9 ( formerly Ferrocarril del Guadarrama Eléctrico ) rebuilt with the exception of the line between Cercedilla and Coto, on broad gauge. The route Ponferrada - Villablino in Castile - Leon was transferred to the responsibility of the state government and is now used only for occasional transportation of raw materials. Most disused routes today are still present, but no longer operational. Whether it is useful to modernize individual routes and resume operations, is constantly being investigated and has been partially implemented into practice. Routes that continue to prove to be unprofitable were, however, converted in the course of the project Vías Verdes (green paths ) to cycle routes.

Projects and future

Due to the difficult financial situation in Spain, the railway company feve was integrated in 2013 into the Spanish state railway company RENFE. The tracks have since been managed by the infrastructure company ADIF. All projects were postponed or abandoned, including projects whose implementation had already begun.

Two light rail system in Leon

In the Spanish city of León, it was a done deal to build a meterspuriges rail network, shared use on the two-system vehicles, the existing narrow gauge track in the vicinity. The construction work was started at the beginning of 2011. The railroad track was about 3km north of the former capped end in order to rededicate the southern section in a rail line. End of March 2014, the Spanish Ministry of Construction announced that this project will not be continued. The route should thus end up in the north of the city in the long term, as more track is already degraded. For what purpose the surfaces of the unfinished light rail construction site should be used in the future remains unclear.

Railway line from Matallana after Vegacevera

In place Vegacevera there was in the past a rail connection for the transport of raw materials. The completely degraded route with a length of about 10 km is to be rebuilt, in particular to transport tourists to Vegacevera. The regional government is planning a center for alpine tourism build. In addition to other construction projects here are also new cable cars will be built in the high mountains. A realization of the railway line here is dependent on the implementation of the overall project, which is uncertain due to the Spanish economic crisis.

S-Bahn tunnel in Gijón Jovellanos between the train station and the district Cabuenes

In the Spanish region of Asturias, a tram-train concept is provided, which uA a railway tunnel in the city of Gijón provides. Although the shell of the tunnel has been completed in many areas, the tunnel is no longer being built since 2006. The maintenance of the unfinished tunnel costs about 100 million euros annually.

Full electrification between Bilbao and Oviedo

In the Greater Bilbao, Santander and Asturias exist electrified island businesses. The electrification should be expanded to allow an electric railway between these three regions. Has been implemented so far an extension of the electrification only between Infiesto and Ribadesella in Asturias.

Extension of the Collanzo after Felechosa

The existing route between Trubia and Collanzo to be extended by a few kilometers to the village Felechosa. The construction should be completed in 2012. In March 2014 has not started with an implementation, so that a realization remains uncertain.

Conversion of the railway line Cartagena - Los Nietos in a light rail

The isolated railway line between Cartagena and Los Nietos should be converted into a rail. Here, too, was not started with a conversion to Dato.

Former routes

There were in all parts of narrow gauge lines that have been shut down in recent decades. Some routes have been degraded or converted to bike paths - other routes are still present. The plots are mostly still in the company's possession. Based on studies that look into the rehabilitation and reactivation of individual routes a positive cost-benefit factor, are political proposals to reactivate one or the other abandoned lines.

The Company has been transferred in the 1970s, several narrow gauge railways, which were, however, continued short-lived, as it is mostly these were isolated routes for which the effort of a single operation was not worthwhile. The following table shows a selection of routes on which feve was the last operator: