The Série 9630 are a class of diesel multiple unit trains built for the

metre gauge Metre-gauge railways are narrow-gauge railways with track gauge of or 1 metre. The metre gauge is used in around of tracks around the world. It was used by European colonial powers, such as the French, British and German Empires. In Europe, la ...

lines of Portuguese Railways (CP) in the

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

area. The trains were built in Portugal by

Sorefame Sorefame (an abbreviation of ''Sociedades Reunidas de Fabricações Metálicas'') was a Portuguese manufacturer of railway rolling stock and industrial equipment, such as dam gates equipment. The company was established in 1943. In the 1990s the ...

and entered service in 1991. These trains were specifically built for and initially used on local train services from

Trindade station Trindade is a station on the Porto Metro system in Porto, Portugal. History The modern metro station was built on the site of the former Trindade railway station, which was the central terminus for services to Porto from Trofa, Póvoa do Varzi ...

. Built with diesel-electric transmission, they were designed for easy conversion to

electric multiple units An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a number ...

. Instead of electrifying the Porto-area lines, it was decided to extensively modernise the system and rebuilt the network completely as part of the

Porto Metro The Porto Metro ( pt, Metro do Porto), part of the public transport (mass transit) system of Porto, Portugal, is a light rail network that runs underground in central Porto and above ground into the city's suburbs. ''Metro do Porto S.A.'' was f ...

(which has been built to ). The closure of these metre gauge lines in 2002 for modernisation left the Série 9630 (and the older Série 9600) units redundant. Seven two-carriage units of Série 9630 were transferred to the

Vouga line Linha do Vouga ''(the Vouga line)'' is the last surviving metre gauge railway line in Portugal still operated by Comboios de Portugal. The other remaining metre gauge lines (the Corgo, Tâmega and Tua lines) all closed in 2009. The line is, h ...

, where (as of March 2012) they remain in service. Since 2009 the Vouga line has been CP's only remaining metre gauge line. This line is, however, also threatened with closure; such a closure would render the Série 9630 units redundant for a second time.

External links

Photographs on the ''railfaneurope'' website

References

{{Rolling stock of Portugal Narrow gauge railways in Portugal Diesel multiple units of Portugal

See also

External links

References