Zafra – Huelva-Mercancías

The origin of this line dates back to 1870, the date of the public auction for the concession of a railway line between Zafra and Huelva, which was awarded in 1878 to the Sundheim & Doetsch company. [‘1’] [‘2’] Initially, the line was planned to connect Zafra with the Riotinto mining railway, in operation since 1875, but finally a route closer to the Portuguese border was chosen. [2]

Work began in August 1881, but only three years later, in 1884, the concession for the section was transferred to the ZH, Compañía del Ferrocarril de Zafra a Huelva, [1] [2] who supervised the construction work. Crossing the Sierra Morena was a real challenge, requiring the construction of sixteen metal bridges and the excavation of nearly twenty tunnels. [‘3’] The first section, Valdelamusa-Huelva, was inaugurated in July 1886 and the entire line was opened in January 1889. [3][4]

An interesting aspect of the project was the connection of the historically isolated region of Andévalo with the rest of the province of Huelva, which had a significant impact on the municipalities of the region. [5] In addition, a railway corridor was established to facilitate the connection between the provinces of Extremadura and the seaport of Huelva, allowing direct access to the Atlantic Ocean and the export of valuable agricultural and mining resources. Furthermore, the existence of numerous mining operations in the surrounding area led to the construction of various narrow-gauge railway branches. The routes of these metric gauge lines were better adapted to the orography of the mining areas, but made it necessary to install different loading points to facilitate the transfer between the narrow-gauge trains and the Iberian gauge trains. Among these branches, those that reached the mines of Aguas Teñidas, El Perrunal, Lomero-Poyatos, Confesionarios, San Telmo, La Joya, Cueva de la Mora and San Miguel stand out. [2][4][6]

In relation to passenger transport, initial projections were significantly exceeded in the first decades.To meet this high demand, the company ZH acquired around thirty steam locomotives and even introduced in 1929 a railcar that reached 80 kilometres per hour on the main line [2] In 1936, the opening of a railway line between Gibraleón and Ayamonte had a major impact, absorbing part of its traffic.At the end of that same year, a new section connecting Zafra with Jerez de los Caballeros was also put into operation, as part of a project to reach the Portuguese border via Villanueva del Fresno. [7] [8]

In 1941, when the Iberian gauge national railway network was nationalised, the line became part of RENFE and several dozen steam locomotives that were serving on other networks, such as MZA, Compañía de los Ferrocarriles de Madrid a Zaragoza or CCFA, Compañía de los Ferrocarriles Andaluces, were assigned to this route. [4]

Between 1954 and 1956, the metal viaducts were replaced by concrete ones, starting with the viaduct over the Odiel, the most important of the whole line, and the superstructure was completely renovated. Until 1960, significant passenger transport continued to be developed, but gradually, the increase in road transport caused a notable decrease in the number of railway users. At the same time, most of the branches connecting the mining operations with the line were closed.

In 1976, as part of a restructuring of the railway infrastructure in the city of Huelva, which centralised services at Huelva-Término station, the historic Huelva-Odiel station was closed. This made it necessary to build a variant line to connect the route of the line with the Huelva-Odiel station.

In 1984 RENFE categorised the line as highly loss-making. Although it still had a considerable amount of goods traffic, regardless of the decline in mining activity, the lack of investment and the obsolescence of the infrastructure meant that train speeds were very low. [2]

In 2005, with the implementation of Railway Sector Law 39/2003 and the extinction of RENFE, the line came under the control of Adif, like the rest of the RFIG in the State. At that time, passenger and freight traffic had decreased considerably compared to previous times and improvement works had begun. Between 2004 and 2016, a comprehensive renovation of the track was carried out on the Zafra-Jabugo section. In addition, numerous railway premises were refurbished and new passenger buildings or halts were built. [9]

In 2020, changes were made to the route to improve traffic safety by replacing the telephone blocking system with a remote control system regulated by a Centralised Traffic Control (CTC). Likewise, in 2022, a process of infrastructure renewal began on the section from Jabugo to Huelva. [10] [11] In addition, during the summer of 2023, the line was closed to traffic to renovate five bridges along the route, with the aim of improving the lifespan of the viaducts. These renovation works were still in progress in December 2024. [12] [13] [14] This major investment highlights the importance of the line for the transport of goods, especially chemicals, minerals and timber between Huelva, its towns and Extremadura. It is hoped that the improvements will also revitalise passenger traffic on the line.

The historical and territorial significance of the railway line, closely linked to mining in the Andévalo region and its connection to the port of Huelva, makes it a potential tourist attraction. The railway line, which has largely defined the evolution of the territory through which it runs, is closely linked to its industrial heritage, offering in its vicinity mining landscapes of great interest. It is a good example of exploited and recovered landscapes and has a relevant ecological and aesthetic value, mainly due to the Mediterranean forest that it crosses. Likewise, the civil engineering works necessary to overcome the complex orography of the area are of unquestionable interest, especially between Cumbres Mayores and Valdelamusa, with the bridges over the river Múrtigas, the bridge of the three fountains and the bridge of Alcolea standing out. However, along its route, signs of abandonment of its traditional livestock and agricultural use can be seen.

Category C1.
Non-electrified track with wooden sleepers in need of repair.