Zafra – Jerez de los Caballeros

The railway line between Zafra and Jerez de los Caballeros was originally conceived to connect Zafra with Portugal via Villanueva del Fresno, but it was never completed beyond Jerez de los Caballeros. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Portuguese government showed interest in establishing a railway connection between the city of Évora, in Portugal, and Zafra and on the Spanish side the first steps were taken for its construction. The line from Zafra to Villanueva del Fresno was incorporated into the Strategic and Secondary Railways plan of 1908, and the tender for its award was put out to tender in April 1917.

Despite the great interest shown by the mining companies operating in the area around the route of this line, characterised by being an extensive and rich mining area that until then had been inaccessible, the process from its planning to the start of construction took a long time. [1] The concession, awarded in 1929, was transferred in 1931 to the railway company that ran from Zafra to Portugal.  [4] Out of the 108 kilometres initially included in the construction plan, only the 47.3-kilometre section between Zafra and Jerez de los Caballeros was completed. The construction process progressed very slowly until its inauguration in November 1936, once the Spanish Civil War had already begun, and its initial operation was marked by military logistics

Once the Civil War was over, work continued on the construction of the next section, between Jerez de los Caballeros and Villanueva del Fresno, but it was abandoned and never finished.

This line did not have its own station in Zafra, with the MZA station performing this function during the few years in which it operated as an independent line. In 1941, when the Iberian gauge railway network was nationalised, the line became part of RENFE and was integrated with the rest of the network.

Several decades later, in 1968, as part of the programme to close Renfe lines, passenger traffic between Zafra and Jerez de los Caballeros was suspended due to low user numbers. Until that moment, there had been two trains a day for passengers, which crossed at Burguillos del Cerro. The main traffic on the line was goods originating from the Siderúrgica Balboa steelworks, located in Jerez de los Caballeros. Since 1969, the line has been used solely for the transport of goods and only trains bound for the Siderúrgica Balboa run on it. [5]

In 2005, with the extinction of RENFE, under the framework of Law 39/2003 on the Railway Sector, the line came under the control of Adif like the rest of the RFIG of the State.
Although there are no plans to resume passenger transport, improvements have been or are being made to the line, specifically on the Zafra-Llano de la Granja section, such as the modernisation of the safety system and the removal of the telephone block. [6]

The importance of the main towns along the line, which have significant historical and cultural heritage, such as the Palace of the Dukes of Feria in Zafra and the churches of Jerez de los Caballeros, make it possible to imagine a future use for tourism. The landscape along the line is characteristic of Lower Extremadura, with pastures, castles and white villages, and its route close to the Dehesas de Jerez, a natural area declared a Special Protection Zone for Birds, stands out. The line has no intermediate stations, only loading bays used for freight services. The station at Jerez de los Caballeros is remarkable, however, its location, in the middle of a logistics centre and far from the town centre, as well as its state of abandonment, make it difficult to take advantage of it for tourism.

Category C2.
A disused railway line in an abandoned or partially dismantled state.