Ramal da Lousã is a railway line which connects the stations of Coimbra-B, on the

Linha do Norte Linha do Norte is the Portuguese main railway line that connects the two main Portuguese cities, Lisbon and Porto. Its length is . It goes through some other important cities like Vila Franca de Xira, Santarém, Entroncamento, Pombal, Coi ...

, and

Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2011 census was 143,397, in an area of . The fourth-largest urban area in Portugal after Lisbon, Porto, and Braga, it is the largest cit ...

, in

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

. It was opened by the Companhia Real dos Caminhos de Ferro Portugueses, under the name Ramal de Coimbra, on 18 October 1885, and was extended to

Lousã Lousã () is a town and concelho, municipality in the district of Coimbra (district), Coimbra, in the central part of Portugal. The population in 2011 was 17,604, in an area of 138.40 km2. History The oldest evidence provides an indication ...

on 16 December 1906, and to

Serpins Serpins are a superfamily of proteins with similar structures that were first identified for their protease inhibition activity and are found in all kingdoms of life. The acronym serpin was originally coined because the first serpins to be id ...

on 10 August 1930. During the 1990s the Metro Mondego project was planned, with the intention of replacing the Ramal da Lousã with a light rail system. The section

Miranda do Corvo Miranda do Corvo () is a town and a municipality in the Portuguese district of Coimbra, with an area of and 2011 population of 13,098 inhabitants. History The first reference to the region of Miranda do Corvo arrived at the end of the 10th cen ...

–

was closed on 1 December 2009, and the section Coimbra–Miranda do Corvo on 4 January 2010, with buses replacing the service. The section from Coimbra-B to Coimbra was not closed, making Coimbra the terminus again. The construction of the Metro Mondego started, but was stopped due to the

2010–14 Portuguese financial crisis 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length&nb ...

. In 2017, the

Portuguese government , border = Central , image = , caption = , date = , state = Portuguese Republic , address = Official Residence of the Prime Minister Estrela, Lisbon , appointed = President ...

changed the plans for Metro Mondego, renaming it Sistema de Mobilidade do Mondego: instead of a light rail, it is to be a guided bus system. The line from Coimbra-B to Coimbra is due to close by the end of 2020, and the new system is planned to be operational in 2021. Before the closures took place, Ramal da Lousã had a total length of .

References

Sources

* {{Railway lines in Portugal Lousa Iberian gauge railways Railway lines opened in 1885

See also

References

Sources