If Torrevieja has an emblem it is its salt flats. This historic cornucopia of abundance was close to the route of a railway project granted to an exotically named (for these parts, at least) railway company: the Compañía de los Ferrocarriles Andaluces (CFA or Andalusia Railway Company). In 1882 this company was awarded the concession for a railway that would link the cities of Alicante and Murcia with a view to operating a future rail network that would run between Andalusia and Levante, a project that the company was never able to realize. However, in the summer of 1884 the CFA was able to open a line that initially ran parallel to the coast before gradually heading further and further inland with the idea of reaching the city of Murcia. Some 25 km from the station at Albatera were the rich salt flats of Torrevieja, an obvious destination for this railway, and to this end a spur line was built. The line was so totally dedicated to the salt industry that it never linked up with the port, but instead carried salt and agricultural products to inland markets. Its beeline route seemed to avoid towns and villages, save for the town of Torrevieja and its salt works.
Spur lines are notoriously difficult to operate profitably, and more so in the case of such a short line. So when the railways started to feel the effects of the fierce competition posed by road transport in the 60s, it was the death knell for this short line. Early in 1970 the line ceased carrying passengers and concentrated exclusively on the transport of salt. It continued to operate in this way with irregular traffic until in the late 80s one of the frequent floods of the river Segura destroyed part of the tracks. This effectively killed off the line, although it was not officially closed until early 1988. Its rails lasted a few years longer until the construction of the AP-7 motorway buried its remains and all that is left today are the sections used by our Greenway running between the La Mata and Torrevieja Lagoons and a few kilometres further inland on the way to Rojales. |
