Bif. Córdoba-Mercancías – Fuente de Piedra

This line began to take shape with the application for a concession to build it that the businessman Martín Larios made to the State in 1852. Larios’ intention was to supply the coal that arrived in Córdoba by rail from the mining basins of the Sierra Morena to the dynamic city of Málaga. Although the State granted him the concession, the political and economic vicissitudes that the country was going through prevented work from starting until 1859 and then with another company set up by businessmen from Malaga, which shortly afterwards would take the legal name of Compañía del Ferrocarril de Córdoba a Málaga (Córdoba to Malaga Railway Company). [1] [2]

The route was completed within 6 years, and the line was inaugurated in 1865. [1] [2] [3]

During the first years of operation, the Córdoba-Málaga line was very successful. This led to the construction by the same company of a link from Bobadilla station to Granda. This new route was inaugurated in 1874. [2]

Poco tiempo después, tanto la línea Córdoba-Málaga como el nuevo ramal construido que conectaba con Granada, pasaron a formar parte de la Compañía de los Ferrocarriles Andaluces, CFA. Esta compañía, fundada por varios de los inversores de la empresa original, añadiría durante las décadas posteriores nuevas conexiones ferroviarias al trazado existente, como la línea entre Utrera y La Roda (1878), la línea entre Marchena y Valchillón (1885) o la línea entre Linares y Puente Genil (1893). [2] [3]

Due to the poor financial situation of the Compañía de los Ferrocarriles Andaluces, in 1936 the government of the Second Republic handed over the management of its network to the Compañía Nacional de los Ferrocarriles del Oeste. A few years later, with the nationalisation of the Iberian gauge railway in 1941, the line was integrated into the RENFE network [4] [5] which made some changes to the original route and opened a branch line from Málaga to Fuengirola in 1975, which would later become part of the Cercanías commuter rail network of the city of Málaga.

At the end of the eighties the railway network in Córdoba underwent a restructuring that would affect this line, changing its start to the current one and providing the line with the El Higuerón freight station. [6]

Given the significant traffic load on the Córdoba-Málaga railway line, ADIF promoted the construction of a high-speed line, which was inaugurated in 2007. This led to a drastic reduction in demand for the conventional line and the consequent loss of passenger services between Córdoba and Bobadilla. [5]

It is important to point out that the platform of the high-speed line is interrupted in the vicinity of Venta del Rayo, and the last section of this line is now being used. This decision must have been made once the construction of the high-speed line was already underway, as there is a viaduct followed by a short section that accommodates the wide platform of the high-speed line, but without a track. This infrastructure is about 2 kilometres long, but there is no news that it will be used in an eventual extension to Málaga.

The line crosses two large landscape units from the city of Córdoba. The first is the Lucena countryside, a large undulating area occupied by a sea of olive trees and dotted here and there with small and medium-sized towns that maintain their economic and cultural activity. In this section, the town of Montilla stands out, capital of the Montilla-Morales designation of origin, which maintains a prosperous winemaking industry and a characteristic hamlet of noble architecture, with two or three storeys, whitewashed in a nuclear white. Aguilar de la Frontera and Puente Genil are also towns of tourist and cultural interest.

The last few kilometres of the route, the line crosses the interior plains of Andalusia, where the area around the Fuente de Piedra lagoon stands out, an endorheic basin on clayey materials, which is an important wintering ground for Anatidae and other bird species. This lagoon forms part of the Natura 2000 Network, as a Special Conservation Area, and is home to threatened flora of great interest.

This line therefore has clear potential for promoting tourism, as it allows the calm enjoyment of olive grove landscapes characteristic of the Cordoba countryside and offers stops at different sites of high cultural and environmental value.

Category A1.
Electrified track with concrete sleepers in a good state of repair.