Tua line

41.203957 - 7.420906Koordinaten: 41 ° 12 ' 14 " N, 7 ° 25' 15 " W

The Linha do Tua to German railway in the Tua, is a narrow gauge branch line in northern Portugal, which runs along the river Tua. Originally it connected the city with Tua Bragança, through different closures leads them today only to Carvalhais.

Through various accidents, the railroad came especially in the years 2007 and 2008 to the attention of the Portuguese media. The route to be dismantled in favor of several dams, whereas, however, citizen protests are directed and what the director Jorge Pelicano turned a highly regarded documentation. The route will be operated by the only Portuguese municipal railway operation Metropolitano de Ligeiro Mirandela.

History

Construction

The history of the Linha do Tua dates back to 1878, in which two different designs competed with each other to build a track in the Tua Valley. While the engineers João Dias, Bernabé Roxo and Sousa Brandão argued for a track on the right bank, represented engineer António Pinheiro a design on the left bank of the Tua. Originally a very long distance from the Douro was intended to addition to the Spanish Zamora, but this was abandoned because of the rough landscape soon. Ultimately Pinheiro won the competition with his design for the new run.

On January 11, 1883 at the same time, running from west to east route Linha do Douro reached the city Tua, asked the city Mirandela King Luís I, to approve the route. This could count on the support of the Chamber of Commerce of Porto, who wanted to focus on expanding transportation routes in the Douro valley - to the detriment of connections further south, such as the routes to Aveiro and Vilar Formoso after. On April 26, 1883, the king signed the law to announcement of the competition to build the Linha do Tua, the Companhia Nacional de Caminhos de Ferro ( CN) won in December 1883. The CN had also built the track Linha do Dão ( Santa Comba Dão and between Viseu ). A year later, on October 16, 1884 construction began on the Linha do Tua near the city Mirandela.

The first few miles of the route were relatively easy to build from there, as the valley was there enough space for the tracks. The CN had only a tunnel, the Tunel de Frechas, and dig a small bridge, the Ponte de Cachao build. Only from Abreiro is complicating the construction project. The engineer Dinis da Mota, who worked for the CN, left with its numerous engineering works an eye-catcher in the rugged landscape of the Tua Valley. Behind Brunheda Dinis created da Mota and many other engineering structures. Thus, the last ten miles to Tua most elaborate of the whole route, it emerged two viaducts and bridges ( Presas, Fraga Más and Paradela ) and five tunnels ( Presas, Tralhariz, Fraga Más I and II and Falcoeira ).

Operation

On September 27, 1887, the Linha do Tua was inaugurated between Tua and Mirandela (km 54.1 ). The first train pulled by a locomotive E81 and baptized in the name of Trás -os- Montes, was driven by the engineer Dinis da Mota itself. In Mirandela, the largest narrow gauge station in the whole country, other Portuguese personalities expected to train, including King Luís I. On September 29, 1887, the scheduled operation started by the Companhia Nacional de Caminhos de Ferro. In further steps in sections follow the opening until after Bragança (km 133.8 ), which was connected on 31 December 1906.

After the CP had shut down the section Mirandela - Braganca on December 15, 1991, the traffic in 1992 was substantially curtailed and a closure was imminent, took over the Metropolitano de Ligeiro Mirandela 1995 first part of the operation of the route, in 2001 the whole. On 28 July 1995, the Metropolitano de Ligeiro Mirandela a municipal enterprises of the city Mirandela, the operation on the Mirandela Carvalhais - section (km 58.2 ), took up again.

After several changes, the responsibility was most recently the "Metro de Miran Delaware " as a railway company for the entire management of Tua to Carvalhais, in the section Tua Mirandela on behalf of the CP responsible. The track maintenance between Tua and Mirandela other hand was in the Portuguese rail infrastructure company REFER and between Mirandela and Carvalhais at the " Metro de Mirandela ". The initiative Movimento pela Civico Linha do Tua, who enjoys the support of the City Mirandela, has been working in October 2006 for the conservation of distance and demands the re-use of earlier loco-hauled trains. Their coaches are parked partly in Tua train station. The associated narrow gauge locomotives of the series 9020 Alstom have been but probably now sold abroad.

After two serious accidents, the CP has had since August 26, 2008 at the " Linha do Tua " means a rail replacement bus service set up with taxis. So currently found only passenger place on the leg of the Metropolitano de Ligeiro Mirandela and between Mirandela and Cachao ( traffic on behalf of the CP).

Accidents

In all its history, the " Linha do Tua " was never negative emerged through major accidents. Only derailed in February 2007 by a superstructure damage at km 6, a railcar and plunged 60 meters into the gorge of Tua. Three deaths were lost. There followed an accident with a trolley and a further derailment without major damage. On August 22, again in 2008 derailed railcars. One dead and many injured were the result.

After the first accident, the track was repaired after a long time and resumed the operation. Since the second serious accident the distance between Tua and Cachao (km 41.9 ) is blocked. The final report of the recent accident has found both as the cause undue limits on the height differences between the rails, and a dangerously unbalanced load under suspension of the vehicles (LRV2000 narrow-gauge railcar ). The vehicles then the operational safety was discussed.

Rolling stock

Originally locomotive-hauled carriage trains were used on the track. 1980 ten diesel railcars of Class MV -2 of there recently decommissioned Dalmatian- Montenegrin 760 mm narrow gauge network were bought and umgespurt in Portugal to 1000 mm from the former Yugoslavia. These vehicles were in use until 1994. You have now been sold: 2007 three sets to the State Railway of Mozambique and three to Peru, where the vehicles are in use since October 2009, the railway company Inca Rail to Aguas Calientes ( Machu Picchu ).

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