The Astillero-Ontaneda railway, a modest narrow gauge line, was originally intended be a great railway. Since the 19th century the people of Santander wanted a direct route to the inland tableland as an alternative to the Escudo Pass. Burgos was the ultimate destination of the various projects that were to climb up the Pas valley and cross the divide. The Astillero-Ontaneda railway, 34 km in length, was to be the first phase of the project but also turned out to be its last. No train ever made it past the station of Ontaneda at the foot of the pass. The line was opened in 1903 and connected Astillero with the narrow gauge lines of the Ferrocarril del Cantábrico, which took passengers the remaining 9 km to Santander. During its modest existence the railway experienced few ups and downs.
In the 1920s a major broad gauge project caused all future plans for the narrow gauge railway to be shelved. But this new project, the famous Santander-Mediterranean line, was also still-born, and Santander was left with the single broad gauge railway that it had had from the start. Eventually, while under FEVE management, the line’s poor financial results brought about the railway’s closure. It was closed down in two stages: from Ontaneda to La Cueva in 1972, and from La Cueva to Astillero a 1976
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