Metro de Mirandela

The Metropolitano de Ligeiro Mirandela, SA, often only Metro de Mirandela to German Light rapid transit Mirandela, is a municipal company in the Portuguese town of Miran Miran Delaware with headquarters in Delaware. Metropolitano de Ligeiro Mirandela operates passenger services on the narrow gauge railway line Linha do Tua Tua and between Carvalhais.

The national railway company Comboios de Portugal ( CP) tried to get rid of the operation to the small, low-traffic branch lines in the Portuguese north in the 1990s. As early as 1992 the CP had significantly limited the operation of the line Linha do Tua. Originally the entire 133.8 long distance between Tua and Bragança in operation since 1992, only the portion Tua Mirandela was operated at 54 -km long route.

To preserve the distance before the full stop, the city administration of Mirandela decided to start their own municipal company to resume operations on the disused track again. The original aim was to allow especially the students of the college in Carvalhais easier access from Mirandela. Founded in 1995, left the city administration rehabilitate provisionally with the financial support of the European Union, the four -kilometer section between Mirandela and Carvalhais and simultaneously established three new breakpoints ( Tarana, Jacques Delors and Jean Monet) in addition to the previously existing two (São Sebastião and Carvalhais ). The Metro de Mirandela then sailed only this section, while the state railway company CP ran the section Tua Mirandela. The CP had and has to this day ten percent of the company, the rest is owned by the city administration.

In 2001 the company took over the concession of the state railway Comboios de Portugal for the operation on the remaining distance between Tua and Mirandela. As of 2005, the Metro de Mirandela operation continuous trains between Tua and Carvalhais. While the route Tua Mirandela was operated under license from the CP - the CP is actually the operators and leased only operation - operates the Metro de Mirandela the remaining portion for its own account. This is officially not even mentioned by the state railway in the timetable books and the electronic information system, the city government Miran Delas is a own timetable for out.

After two accidents, the continuous traffic to Tua has been closed since October 2008. There are only pairs of trains by Cachao, there has to be switched into a taxi in the rail replacement bus service.

Rolling stock

The Metropolitano de Ligeiro Mirandela has four small, green diesel vehicles of the type 9500, based on the basis of older Yugoslav trains. The CP continued this earlier on their own on the lines Linha do corgo and Linha do Tua one, they were rebuilt in the railway workshop Guifões. While the CP vehicles always in red - the typical color for the narrow gauge traffic - drove the trains of the Metro de Mirandela are bright green. The original four vehicles were each given a name of a European city: Bruxelas ( Brussels), Lisboa ( Lisboa), Estrasburgo (Strasbourg ) and Paris.

On February 12, 2006, an accident near the breakpoint Castanheiro, in which the vehicle Bruxelas suffered significant damage, it died three passengers occurred. The vehicle has been scrapped, so that the company currently has only three vehicles.