I'm beginning to understand Spanish trains. It has puzzled me why services seem so sparse, and why both narrow and broad gauges continue to exist.
The year before last, I travelled up to the middle of the north coast at Gijon on one of a handful of broad gauge trains each day and after a bit or local stuff turned left along the line to Ferrol. Narrow gauge, the line in the mid section had an incredibly long single track section that took 3 hours to traverse, and I wondered as to whether it was an expensive anachronism. Two trains a day is poor enough, but there are some stations at which only one train calls.
This year, I have arrived into Bilbao on the ferry from Portsmouth, and Lisa and I are based here for a few days. From west to east, Ferrol (1 on map), Gijon (2), Santander (3), Bilbao (4) and San Sebastian / Donostia (5) are on the north coast with broad gauge lines going inland (blue) and narrow gauge (red) along the coast joining them up. And today I have taken the train from Bilbao to San Sebastian - a journey of some 2.5 hours each way covering rather less than 50 kms as the crow flies.
What a contrast. The train is electric, modern, and runs every hour from early morning into the evening. It starts off in the metro / underground as part of a service running frequently (8 times an hour?) but alternate service peel off so it becomes every 15 minutes, then every half hour, then hourly. And, yes, it IS well used; lots of local traffic along the way, and as we approach San Sebastian another service joins us - a short run making it half hourly. Then a branch comes in, and as we get to San Sebastian it's 4 trains an hour again.
Much of the middle section is single tracked, but unlike the section at the west end towards Ferrol there are copious passing loops, mostly at stations, and the trains pass each other almost in a synchronised ballet. No mucking about waiting for single lines of tokens, but very little waiting around either.
So why does it remain so slow and narrow gauge? Because of the terrain! The line twists its way up deep valleys, and slides up steep ravines. It curls round river and the sea's inlets, and pieces it way by tunnel through the mountains. There's no way it would be any faster on broad (Iberian) gauge, and the cost of the extra engineering would be horrific. But it works as a long distance service for a lot of local journeys; half way along, the train is still busy but hardly any of the original passengers remain.
What a contrast to the Gijon to Ferrol section - though there are parallels with addition service running at both ends of the thin middle. I have heard that's to close - but for electrification and modernisation. I had to wonder when I heard that news "who are they kidding", but looking again with today's experience, I can see the logic. For the old section twists and turns through a number of signifiant towns - major latent business potential - with splays of disused tracks that so easily be modernised into appropriate passing loops.
In modernisation, I suspect the quaint charm will be lost, but what will come in its place will be a useful and used modern railway though spectacular scenery, services running frequently enough to meet the general needs of the area. I suspect a handful of the many stations will be lost; one of two seemed to cater for no more than a couple of farmhouses, with the daily (afternoon) train I was on just dropping off couple of school pupils. Looking carefully out of the window of today's new train, I can see evidence of some places where there used to be a station but is no longer. I have also noticed the odd place where a tunnel cutoff has been added, and maps tell me that another is proposed in the heart of San Sebastian.
I say that one of the objectives of my travelling is to learn lessons for England. What have I learned here?
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An hourly service is USED. It makes a huge difference and is really what we need for our Swindon - Chippenham - Melksham - Trowbridge - Westbury line
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A simple, low cost fare system attracts people to rail. I'm paying 2 Euros each way on a swipe card and I suspect that everyone else on the train is on the same (zonal, swipe in and out) system.
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Trains are electric, run reliably, and are clock-face to the same timetable all week (except a the first service on a Sunday is an hour later) work
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It's attractive to thread the various services on the line uniformly with others running short or to different destinations
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Hard seats are ****dy hard the world over!
