The Cartagena–Los Nietos line is a

narrow-gauge railway A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter cur ...

in the

Murcia Region The Region of Murcia (, ; ; ) is an autonomous community of Spain located in the southeastern part of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Mediterranean coast. The region is in area and had a population of 1,511,251 as at the start of 2020. About a ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, connecting the city of Cartagena with smaller

satellite town A satellite city or satellite town is a smaller municipality or settlement that is part of (or on the edge of) a larger metropolitan area and serves as a regional population and employment center. It differs from mere suburbs, subdivisions a ...

s to its east.

History

The railway line was first developed in the late nineteenth century to serve the Sierra Minera de Cartagena-La Unión and associated

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

communities east of Cartagena. The first section of the line completed in 1874 connected Cartagena with La Unión with a number of spur lines directly serving independent mines. In 1931 during the Second Republic period, the railway line was nationalized and in 1965 the operator was transferred to

FEVE Renfe Cercanías AM, formerly known as Renfe Feve, is a division of state-owned Spanish railway company Renfe Operadora. It operates most of Spain's of metre-gauge railway. This division of Renfe was previously a stand-alone company named F ...

. The entire railway line, originally built at a 1,067 mm gauge, was switched to a

metre gauge Metre-gauge railways ( US: meter-gauge railways) are narrow-gauge railways with track gauge of or 1 metre. Metre gauge is used in around of tracks around the world. It was used by several European colonial powers including France, Britain and ...

. In 1976 the railway was extended to its current terminus at Los Nietos.

Service

Trains run between the Cartagena

Station and Los Nietos Station every 30 minutes and they take approximately 28 minutes to traverse the entire route. The Cartagena

station is approximately away from the main

Cartagena railway station Cartagena railway station is a railway terminal station located in the Spanish municipality of Cartagena, Spain, Cartagena, in the region of Murcia. It has medium- and long-distance services operated by Renfe. The Art Nouveau building was built ...

. There are 22 daily weekday services in each direction. Proposals have been made to extend the line to the resort community of La Manga del Mar Menor but no funding has been committed.

References

{{reflist Metre-gauge railways in Spain Cartagena, Spain 1874 establishments in Spain Railway lines opened in 1874 Rail transport in the Region of Murcia