The remanants of the Zaragoza-Pau railway line can be seen around the Somport pass north of Jaca. The rail line between Zaragoza and Pau was opened in 1928 by King Alfonso 13th and French President Gaston Doumergue after 20 years of construction. The line was fantastic feat of  engineering  with 80 bridges, 4 viaducts and 24 tunnels – one 7.8 km long that descends in a spiral to reduce the gradient.

The line was never profitable and with the outbreak the Spanish civil war the line was officially closed and the tunnel bricked up to prevent invasion. During the 2nd world war Germany used the tunnel and several bridges were blown up by the resistance.

In 1948 the line was re-opened for civilian use. Again the line was not profitable but continued to operate until 1970 when a freight train’s brakes failed. The runaway train destroyed a bridge and left the tracks and came to rest beside the stream fortunately without killing anyone. SNCF were never committed to repairing the line and the final nail in the coffin was when the road tunnel was completed in 2003.

The station at Canfranc

The international train station at Canfranc was built between 1921-25. It’s 241 metres long with 75 doors on each side and several hundred windows. When it opened in 1928 Canfranc was the biggest station in Europe. Another of it’s claims to fame is that a scene from Dr Zhivago was filmed there.

The beautiful building now lies derelict and just a couple of trains a day arrive from Jaca to a small platform and building alongside the former station. There are plans to develop the station into an exhibition space but with the current financial in Spain sadly I think this is some way off happening.