Guadalajara – Casetas

The construction of the railway line between Chamartín station in Madrid and França station in Barcelona, corresponding to ADIF line 200, took place gradually throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.

In 1845, the section between Madrid and Zaragoza was declared to be of general state interest, which accelerated its construction, which was awarded to the Madrid to Zaragoza and Alicante Railway Company, MZA.

The line was to begin at Atocha and in 1859 the works reached the town of Guadalajara. At this point, MZA began to make arrangements to enable a connection between this station and Zaragoza. Years later, in 1861, with the construction of the most advanced line, MZA signed an agreement with the Zaragoza to Pamplona Railway Company to organise a service between Madrid and Paris via Tudela, Pamplona and Bayonne.

Although there were some technical and financial setbacks in the following years, the Madrid-Zaragoza railway was fully completed in 1865.

Later, the railway company from Tarragona to Barcelona and France, TBF, began construction of a line from Zaragoza to Tarragona, passing through Caspe. The aim was to establish a direct route between Zaragoza and Barcelona that could compete with the one that passed through Lleida, owned by the Northern Spanish Railway Company, CCHNE.

The TBF and MZA companies ended up merging in 1898 after a negotiation process for the joint operation of the Madrid-Zaragoza and Zaragoza-Barcelona lines.

In the 20th century, the line and its facilities began to be gradually modernised, with the construction of a double track in some sections.

On the other hand, the country’s unstable economy at the beginning of the century forced the delay or cancellation of many pending reforms, as well as the modernisation of facilities and rolling stock, pushing the company into a critical situation.

However, state aid derived from the 1924 Railway Statute allowed MZA to undertake the necessary reforms to modernise the infrastructure. The Civil War, however, caused damage to the railway installations and after the war MZA was practically bankrupt, and so it ended up being integrated into Renfe [1]. Since its integration into Renfe, the line has been renovated, electrified and split into many sections. [ref link=”2″]

The 1979 General Railway Plan allowed for the renovation of many facilities, such as those at the stations of Madrid-Atocha, Madrid-Chamartín (which absorbed a large part of the traffic from Atocha), Barcelona-Sants and Barcelona-Francia. [3]

The arrival of high-speed rail in 2003 on the Madrid-Barcelona route has meant a progressive reduction in the services of the conventional line that covered the transit between the two cities. Currently, they are limited to suburban services in metropolitan areas, medium-distance and freight and logistics services.

The section covered by this file runs through varied landscapes with a marked continental influence. The first part, from Guadalajara to Mantillas approximately, follows the course of the Henares river, which has fields of crops and patches of more or less well-preserved groves on either side of the riverbed. The line then enters the Muela, Cabo Tiñoso and Roldán mountain ranges, where the station, which has been converted into a railway museum, stands out for its scenic beauty. Afterwards, the route meets up again with the Henares river as far as Sigüenza, reaching the river’s source in Horna. From that point on, the line advances through the Iberian System. The stations on this section have been preserved. Once in the province of Zaragoza, the line passes through Calatayud, the regions of Valdejalón and Ribera Alta del Ebro, until it reaches the metropolitan area of Zaragoza.

The stations in Aragon have the same type of construction, different to those in the Castile-León section. The stations at Sabiñán and Calatayud are noteworthy, as are the railway bridges over the river Jalón. This section is the one with the greatest scenic value and tourist potential, as it is close to an attractive city such as Calatayud.

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