Page 105 - Vía Libre Special - 25 Years of Spanish High Speed Rail

Adarme y Sánchez, which offered the railway firm Compañía de los
a 20% discount on the budget Ferrocarriles Andaluces.
initially established. However, After the wedding he
the works would soon run into moved to Malaga to focus his
some serious difficulties, among professional career on the world
which was the construction of the of hydroelectric power. In 1903 brake van
Jándula reservoir, whose waters he and some partners set up
would flood part of the layout the Sociedad Hidroeléctrica del
originally planned. It was therefore Chorro and two years later he
necessary to modify the project on built a power plant on the River
the fly. Later the contractor passed Guadalhorce. Then he directed
the contract on to the company the construction of the Pantano
Ingeniería y Construcciones del Chorro reservoir on the
Marcor, S.A., which continued with same river. It was precisely this
the work. major feat of engineering that
In 1932, when the Republican earned him the title of Count
government repealed the Plan for of Guadalhorce, granted by King
Railways of Urgent Construction Alfonso XIII on September 12,
due to the lack of funds with which 1921.
to finance the works, the situation Rafael Benjumea y
of the Puertollano to Cordoba Portrait of Rafael Benjumea y Burin, Burín was an active supporter
railway was as follows: Count of Guadalhorce. of General Primo de Rivera’s
• From the start at dictatorship after the coup
Marmolejo to the station of Lugar d’état of September 13, 1924. A
Nuevo, all the track bed work had been completed. supporter of state interventionism in the economic
• From Lugar Nuevo until kilometre 80, the development of the country, on December 3, 1925
most complicated section of the line, since it was the the Count of Guadalhorce was appointed Minister
part that crossed the Sierra Morena mountain range, of Development in the first civil cabinet of Primo
only a few isolated works had been carried out. de Rivera’s dictatorship. Rafael Benjumea was a
• From kilometre 80 to Puertollano station, all very active minister. In just over two months he had
the track bed work had been completed. set in motion the three most important projects
All work on this railway was totally abandoned of his administration: the Circuito Nacional de
and would not be restarted until after the Civil War. Firmes Especiales, the Confederaciones Sindicales
However, its spirit remained dormant, since to some Hidrológicas, and the Plan Preferente de Ferrocarriles
extent it served as the inspiration in the eighties for de Urgente Construcción, which were aimed at
the New Rail Access to Andalusia, better known as the modernizing the road system, water management,
Madrid to Seville AVE line, although in this case a more and the rail network respectively. The two first
westerly route was chosen than the one proposed for initiatives were, at least technically speaking,
the Puertollano to Cordoba railway. unqualified successes, as they formed the basis for
road transport and hydraulic works of subsequent
the MAN
The Count of Republican and Franquist governments. However, his
railway projects were clamorous failures.
Guadalhorce on January 30, 1930 Benjumea tendered his
After the fall of Primo de Rivera’s government,
(Seville, July 23, 1876 - resignation, as did all the cabinet ministers, without
having been able to open any of the railways he
Malaga, September 27, 1952)
had been promoting while in office. Faced with the
Rafael Benjumea y Burín, Count of Guadalhorce, new political scenario, Rafael Benjumea got together
was the main promotor of the Priority Plan for with a number of ex-ministers of the old regime, the
Railways of Urgent Construction and, therefore, Marquis of Quintanar, and the son of the former
of the railway from Puertollano to Cordoba. Born dictator, José Antonio, and formed a political party,
in Seville, in 1876, as a young man he studied civil the Unión Monárquica Nacional, of which he was
engineering. In 1901 he married Isabel Heredia Loring, appointed president. The ideas behind this party,
a member of one of the most influential families in leaning heavily towards the radical right, broke with
Malaga, with links to, among many other companies, the conservative tradition of Cánovas del Castillo

Vía Libre • Special 25th Anniversary of the AVE Edition 105