Page 106 - Vía Libre Special - 25 Years of Spanish High Speed Rail

full speed ahead
brake van

and was openly sympathetic with fascism. However,
after the failure of this initiative in the municipal
elections of April 1931 and the subsequent declaration
of the Republic, the Count of Guadalhorce decided
it was time to leave Spain, going first to France and
later to Argentina.
Durante the first two years of the Republic,
Rafael Benjumea was indicted for a number of
irregularities in the awarding of construction
contracts on the Cuenca to Utiel railway and was
tried and sentenced in absentia on December 7,
1932. Despite being elected member of parliament
for Zaragoza in the 1933 elections and granted an
amnesty by the new government, the Count of
Guadalhorce chose to remain in Argentina, since
at that time he was directing the construction of
lines C, D and E of the Buenos Aires Metro system,
the contract for which had been awarded to the
Compañía Hispano Argentina de Obras Públicas
y Finanzas. This enterprise had strong ties with a Station at Logrosán, on the line from Talavera de la
number of companies with which Benjumea had been Reina to Villanueva de la Serena. Despite the track
linked during his time as Minister of Development, being laid between Logrosán and Villanueva, like so
specifically Hidroeléctrica del Chorro, Minera de many other lines of the Guadalhorce Plan, the line
Langreo and Siero, and the company Delmor, involved was never finished. Photo by Martin Dieterich.
in major irregularities relating to work on the Teruel EUSKOTREN ARCHIVE/BASQUE RAILWAY MUSEUM
to Lérida railway.
At the end of the Civil War, Rafael Benjumea Unlike other public works projects promoted
remained in Buenos Aires directing the work on the by the Dictatorship, the Priority Plan for Railways
Metro, but the financial situation of the company of Urgent Construction can only be described as a
went into decline after 1940 as the company defaulted complete failure. Of the 4,291 km of new lines which
on lenders and bondholders. In 1943 he was arrested were to be built under the plan, only 2,369 km were ever
and tried for fraud by the Argentine authorities, opened and, what is worse, there was another 1,514 km
although in 1945 the case was dismissed. of practically completed lines, in many cases even with
In 1948 the Count of Guadalhorce returned the track laid, on which no trains ever ran. A staggering
to Spain on being appointed President of Renfe. amount of public money was squandered in this way.
the FIGURE
From then until his death in 1952, the Count of Of the lines that did succeed in entering into operation,
Guadalhorce’s efforts were focused on rebuilding the today only 1,318 km of line are still operational and none
company, although he never succeeded in opening of them carry a volume of traffic of any real importance.
any of the lines included in his Priority Plan for The Guadalhorce Plan railways were born too
Railways of Urgent Construction. late, at a time when the development of motorized
road transport, given a significant boost by the
infrastructure work promoted by the Dictatorship
4,291 new kilometres itself, posed a serious threat to the monopoly that
the train had enjoyed up until then. Although such
authoritative sources as the railway companies
On March 5, 1926, Primo de Rivera’s government themselves questioned the viability of the plan from
approved the Priority Plan for Railways of Urgent the very beginning, the fact is that for various reasons
Construction which, among many other lines, would its execution was never completely halted during the
promote the construction of the railway from Republic, despite open opposition from prominent
Puertollano to Cordoba. As part of this plan the leaders of the new regime such as Indalecio Prieto.
government proposed building 17 new railways, with a Nor was the plan scrapped as a result of either the
total length of 2,492 km. Together which the 1,799 km Civil War or the post-war subsistence economy. For
of new railway lines pledged by the State previously, a years huge sums of public money were ploughed into
total of 4,291 new kilometres of railway lines were to be the plan, and just when many of the lines were nearing
built under the plan. completion, a report issued by the International Bank

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