Although the first plans to build a railway to Olot date back to the 19th century (even before the Barcelona-Mataró line was built), the Girona-Olot railway was finally opened in 1911, after a lengthy construction process. Early plans called for linking Olot, the capital of the district of La Garrotxa, with Sant Joan de les Abadesses and its rich coal mines (at Ogassa), and the port of Roses. Later, the idea was to link Olot with Sant Joan after a rail link had been established between the latter town and Barcelona. Other yet later plans talked of the line going to Torelló where it would link up with the broad gauge line already built. Eventually they opted for the route along the Ter valley, to link up with the rest of the national rail network at Girona.
After a number of years of economic success during which ambitious plans were made to extend the line both inland and to Barcelona, the Civil War intervened and the narrow gauge railway suffered financial and physical losses. Republican troops blew up many of the bridges as they retreated and a large number of locomotives and rolling stock were lost. The floods of 1940 also caused further damage to the tracks, making the task of rebuilding the railway even more daunting.
Gradually steam locomotives were replaced by railcars, making the railway easier to manage. However, the railway continued to struggle economically and in 1963 it was taken over by the FEVE (Spanish Narrow-Gauge Railways). But the FEVE was unable to turn the railway around and, in spite of serving a large number of passengers and some promising plans to link prolong the line beyond Girona to Sant Feliu de Guixols, the line was eventually closed in July, 1969
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