After 48 years of service, it is now over: Today, on 5 May 2024, the vintage electric railcars with their matching trailers operate for the last time on the only metre-gauge line of the Madrid suburban train system “Cercanías” – line C9 from Cercedilla to Cotos. The service will be provided by buses as a rail replacement for a year, during which time the line will be extensively modernised.
Modernisation necessary
No doubt – this is actually long-time overdue: not only are the trains in urgent need of renewal, but the track equipment and almost the entire infrastructure also show considerable modernisation backlogs after many years of neglect. The lack of interest shown by the state railway RENFE in operating the 18 km long railway line was obvious for a long time, especially in comparison to similar lines e.g. in Catalonia or the Basque Country. Over the years, the infrastructure has been progressively deconstructed, with the stop at Puerto de Navacerrada eventually becoming the only crossing point of the whole line. All intermediate stops along the line were closed and abandoned.
Although the railway lives from tourism, and the few road connections, which are particularly congested at weekends, are actually ‘crying out’ for alternatives, only one train has been in daily operation for several years, offering five departures every two hours between 9.35 am and 7.25 pm. RENFE doubled the fares a few years ago, and the trains can only be used with advance digital bookings anyway, although they are by no means fully occupied on average. This definitely deters potential passengers, too. Part of the overall picture is the fact that RENFE completely suspended the service on the C9 for more than 2 ½ years from March 2020 in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and only resumed them under public pressure.
Four of the six electric railcars and driving trailers procured between 1976 and 1982 were still in operational condition, but their fate as a museum piece, for example, is still open. They were built by MTM in Spain using Swiss components, modelled on very similar trains in the Bern, Lausanne and Oberaargau regions. They operated as coupled pairs to two or four-car trainsets, always with the driving trailers.
New rolling stock
RENFE ordered six new, two-car trainsets with low-floor access from the Basque manufacturer CAF a few years ago, together with 30 other units for other narrow-gauge railways in the country. The trains for Cercedilla-Cotos are specially equipped for the steep and winding sections of the C9 line in the mountain region north of Madrid. The first of the railcars were delivered in late summer last year and are currently being tested on a dedicated test track in the Navarra region. They have not yet been officially presented to the public.
Before they can be used in Cercedilla, the line will have to be completely overhauled anyway: Large part of the sleepers will be replaced, the intersections with road traffic will be redesigned, the signalling technology renewed and the power supply stabilised. The access areas at the three station are to be refurbished and remodelled, too.
So there is hope that a completely modernised, attractive means of transport will be available to visitors to the region in the near future. If the timetable is then also increased and the trains can perhaps even be used – easily and spontaneously – without the hassle of advance bookings, as is the case with other local lines, there is a chance that the C9 line will be perceived as a completely new, attractive service offering and an environmentally friendly alternative for day trippers and locals.
The line and its history
The narrow-gauge railway has its starting point in Cercedilla, which lies at an altitude of 1,170 metres. Here there is a connection to the broad-gauge railway line from Madrid to Segovia at the same platform, and this is also where the C8 suburban trains from the capital terminate. Cercedilla was an early favourite place for ‘summer visitors’, as excursionists from the big city were called at the time, who sought relaxation in the cooler mountain climate at the weekend.
Immediately after the transfer station, the narrow-gauge railway climbs with a maximum gradient of just under 7‰ and crosses the higher parts of the municipality of Cercedilla. The route then runs along a narrow country road with little traffic for a few kilometres before it leads through lonely terrain on the mountainside to the top of the Puerto de Navacerrada pass. At kilometre 12.1, at an altitude of 1,760 metres, you will find the only stop and crossing point today – Puerto de Navacerrada. After a short tunnel to the other, northern side of the mountain range and another 7 km of winding roads, the route ends in Cotos, at an altitude of 1,830 metres.
The first section from Cercedilla to Puerto de Navacerrada was opened on 12 July 1923. The trains were electrically powered right from the start after the project for a rack railway was rejected and the steam traction, which was still en vogue at the time, was not considered efficient enough for a railway with such steep gradients and tight curve radii. Right from the opening, four-axle railcars and trailers built in Switzerland were used, delivered by SMS and BBC. The Spanish Civil War caused economic difficulties for the private operating company Ferrocarril de Guadarrama, and so the state railway RENFE took over the line in 1941.
The expansion of the railway line on the plateau was planned from the outset, but it was not until the early 1960s that the plans were finalised – at a time when most narrow-gauge railways elsewhere and also in Spain were falling victim to road traffic! Since 29 October 1964, it has been possible to travel as far as Cotos, but all further expansion plans remained on hold.
The railway line is 18.2 km long in total and the journey time is approximately 40 minutes in each direction.
