The Linares Baeza–Almería railway is an Iberian-gauge railway line in

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 ...

. It branches from the Alcázar de San Juan–Cádiz railway at Linares and terminates in Almería. It is currently the main line linking

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

Almería Almería (, , ) is a city and municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain, located in Andalusia. It is the capital of the province of Almería, province of the same name. It lies in southeastern Iberian Peninsula, Iberia on the Mediterranean S ...

Route

The line runs through the provinces of Jaén,

Granada Granada ( ; ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada (Spain), Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence ...

and

. The route formerly contained the Hacho Bridge, which was the longest iron

viaduct A viaduct is a specific type of bridge that consists of a series of arches, piers or columns supporting a long elevated railway or road. Typically a viaduct connects two points of roughly equal elevation, allowing direct overpass across a wide ...

on the Spanish rail network.Chías Navarro, Prop and Abbot Balboa, Tomás: " Bridges of Spain ", FCC, Madrid 1994, pag. 248,

Services

The line is used by all trains from Almería to Madrid, with the full journey taking around six hours. To continue to Madrid from Linares, the line uses the Alcázar de San Juan–Cádiz railway as far as

Alcázar de San Juan Alcázar de San Juan is a city and municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain located in the province of Ciudad Real, autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castilla–La Mancha. It lies on the plain of La Mancha. From the 13t ...

, and the Madrid–Valencia railway to Madrid Chamartín.

Future

In 2023, Almería railway station will be linked to the

AVE is a Latin word, used by the Roman Empire, Romans as a salutation (greeting), salutation and greeting, meaning 'wikt:hail, hail'. It is the singular imperative mood, imperative form of the verb , which meant 'Well-being, to be well'; thus on ...

high-speed rail High-speed rail (HSR) is a type of rail transport network utilising trains that run significantly faster than those of traditional rail, using an integrated system of specialised rolling stock and dedicated railway track, tracks. While there is ...

network by the

Murcia–Almería high-speed rail line The Murcia–Almería high-speed rail line is an under-construction railway in the Region of Murcia and Andalusia in Spain. History Murcia and Almería were once linked by rail from Lorca to Guadix via Baza, however this line closed in 1985. W ...

, allowing a 3.5 hour journey to Madrid, compared to over six hours using the Linares Baeza–Almería railway, which will therefore decrease in importance.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Linares Baeza-Almeria railway Rail transport in Andalusia Railway lines in Spain Iberian-gauge railways