The Lost Railway: The Frustration and Legacy of the Teruel-Alcañiz Train Line

“It gives sadness, sorrow and very strong feelings when you go from Teruel to Alcañiz and you see those skeletons of the abandoned stations that were going to be part of the railway line that would connect both towns,” recognizes Teruel historian Serafín Aldecoa. That train line between Teruel and Alcañiz and the “frustration” it created in the population by not moving forward was the topic chosen by Aldecoa to inaugurate the series of conferences for the 75th anniversary of the Institute of Teruel Studies (IET) at the Museum of Teruel.

If this railway route focused on the transport of goods had gone ahead, according to the historian, more “social, economic and human relations” would have developed between both territories because it would represent a “union link” between the province. At the same time, it was perceived as a way to “export” to other nearby communities products such as oil or minerals – coal or manganese – extracted in the mines that filled the train passage areas.

“The railways, in the first half of the 20th century, created great expectations, a lot of hope was placed in them. In Teruel they were perceived as a solution to the backwardness and problems that existed in the province,” highlights Aldecoa. He adds that in the case of Teruel-Alcañiz, as the population discovers that the objectives are not being met, a feeling of “frustration” diminishes, since they saw that for something as simple as renewing their identity card in the Teruel capital, they had to spend almost a day of travel to get there.

The railway line that would link Teruel and Alcañiz was planned, according to Aldecoa, as a section of the road that would start from Baeza in Jaén until reaching the French town of Saint Girons. “This train also passed through Albacete, Utiel, Caspe or Lleida, so it was an important step for Teruel,” notes the historian.

The origin, an urgent railway plan

The origin of this line dates back to the period of Miguel Primo de Rivera’s dictatorship, which lasted from 1923 to 1930. And during this stage, the government formed by “nine generals”, as Aldecoa lists, developed a railway plan of urgent construction. That is, a review was made of the different lines that had to be promoted and from that point onwards, different plans were established to finance them, according to what was reported by the historian. “During dictatorships, the economy is intervened with protectionist measures and another important way is to promote public works. That is why they worked on railway issues,” he says.

This commitment to trains caused that during the 1920s there were “four lines” under construction within the community of Aragón. An example of this would be the Canfranero, which was inaugurated in 1928 to link Zaragoza with France or the Val de Zafán railway, which would connect La Puebla de Híjar with San Carlos de la Rápita, but ended up being a mirage and was left unused in Tortosa. . In parallel, this line was developed from Teruel to Alcañiz and the one known as Caminreal, which began its work in 1927 to finish in 1933.

“The Caminreal is an important step because it will link Teruel with Zaragoza directly. From 1901 to 1933 you had to take up to three trains to get to the Aragonese capital,” explains the historian. Travelers leaving from Teruel boarded the Central de Aragón – which went from Sagunto to Cantabria – to reach Calatayud, take another train that would take them to Casetas and finally from there to Zaragoza.

Also 1927 is the date that Serafín Aldecoa estimates as the beginning of the construction of the Teruel-Alcañiz railway. To carry out the works, four sections were differentiated: from Teruel to Perales de Alfambra, from this town to Castel de Cabra, from there it extends to Alcorisa and finally the stage ending in Alcañiz. Along this route, 33 buildings and nine stations were built that share a “constructive unit.”

The project for this railway line fell into the hands of the company Delmor SA, which was formed by Rafael Delgado Benítez and Fernando Morán and is being developed with an initial financial allocation of around 65 million pesetas. “This company keeps the auction because they are committed to finishing the works a year earlier, instead of five as had been stated, they would take them out in four years, and with 10% less budget,” describes the speaker.

“Unhealthy” working conditions

According to Aldecoa, some 2,000 workers were involved in the construction of the road between Teruel and Alcañiz. Some of them had to come from other territories, since there was “low population density” in the area where the train passed through. The working conditions in which they found themselves were “unhealthy” and Serafín Aldecoa, a historian who has studied the labor movement in depth, indicates that “they were exploited.” “They earned 5 pesetas a day working 10 hours because they were paid 0.5 per hour. With that amount they could hardly feed or clothe themselves,” he denounces.

During the conference he showed documents obtained from the Provincial Archive of Teruel in which 11 deaths and 15 injuries were quantified. “They may not all be there and some of the injured may end up dying. The tunnels sank and landslides occurred, they were very dangerous conditions,” says the historian.

The line was marked by stops, as there were two pauses and the third was definitive. The first of them dates back to 1930 due to the change of regime from the dictatorship to the republic. At that time, the residents of the area and the workers sent letters to the press requesting the resumption, as Aldecoa has reported. The strike ends and with the proclamation of the Republic it is decided to continue with the railway plan stipulated in the previous regime.

However, at the end of 1931, the former Minister of Finance, Indalecio Prieto, stopped it again because the railroads were causing “great debt.” In this way, a commission is created to assess which roads are necessary and it is determined that the Teruel-Alcañiz route is a priority and construction is resumed to the point that another new budget item is allocated. All the hope placed on these roads vanished on July 15, 1935 with the definitive closure, which was due to the fraud of 12 million pesetas by the company Delmor SA, in charge of the construction.

During the following years, several meetings were held to see if it was possible to resume the work so that this line would be a dream come true. In 1941, according to Aldecoa, a judge investigated what happened on this railway so that in 1964 the World Bank issued a report in which it indicated that the construction of this train was not profitable. At this time the partners of the company Delmor SA disappeared and in 1957 the file expired.

Thus, those stations that you see when traveling on the road from Teruel to Alcañiz, and that are characterized by the large plinth in the lower part, the brick in the upper area, towers and semicircular arches, have remained in a mere memory of what could have been and never was. Some, like the one in Perales de Alfambra, have been converted and a ‘hostel’ and a swimming pool have been installed. “All these stations are industrial heritage and that is why we must try to maintain and conserve it,” concludes Serafín Aldecoa.