Page 107 - Vía Libre Special - 25 Years of Spanish High Speed Rail

for Reconstruction and Development led to the works Catalonia and Valencia with Andalusia by avoiding
being abandoned, with the exception of two lines that the long detour via Alcázar de San Juan.
were reprieved: the direct line from Madrid to Burgos In spite of the serious budgetary limitations
and the narrow gauge line from Ferrol to Gijón, work of the period following the Civil War, Franco’s
on which was completed in 1968 and 1972, respectively. government remained committed to the Albacete to
Today the works of the Guadalhorce Plan, some Baeza line, so the work continued whenever budget brake van
completely abandoned, others recycled as greenways, allocations allowed, until after having built the entire
the PHOTO
and a few with some sort of railway service, are mute track bed, track was laid along the entirety of the
testimony to a bad decision which for over thirty years, third section, from Albacete to the boundary with the
due to all kinds of political constraints, nobody dared province of Jaén. On December 14, 1962, the Official
to put right. State Gazette (BOE) announced a call for tenders
for the track laying work on the first and second
The railway from sections, which would have practically completed
the project. However, shortly afterwards, on January
Utiel to Baeza 4, 1963, the Ministry of Public Works suspended the
tender process due to “the advisability of taking into
account the results of certain studies being carried
This photo, taken by Enrique Andrés Gramage, out into railways”, clearly referring to the findings
symbolizes like few others the failure of the Plan for of the report issued by the International Bank for
Railways of Urgent Construction, the brainchild of Reconstruction and Development, which advised
the Count of Guadalhorce. Taken at the boundary against the construction of new railways in Spain.
between the provinces of Albacete and Jaén, it shows Thus the construction of this important cross-
the unfinished work on the railway from Utiel to country route was definitively shelved. The only part
Baeza. The construction work on its 366 km length of the project that entered into service was the new
started in February 1927 but, after the arrival of the station at Albacete, which opened in 1967 and serves
Republic, it was decided to focus all efforts on the the Renfe line from Madrid to Alicante. Today it also
section between Albacete and Baeza, a connection forms part of the Levante high speed line.
which would facilitate communications from JuanJo olaizola

Provincial boundary between Albacete and Jaén. In
the former province the modern track, fitted with
concrete bi-block sleepers which were state-of-the- ENRIQUE ANDRÉS GRAMAGE
art at the time, comes to an abrupt end on reaching
the province of Jaén.

Vía Libre • Special 25th Anniversary of the AVE Edition 107