Galego | English

Non fiction

El ferrocarril en Galicia

By Xosé Carlos Fernández Díaz

About this book

The background of this this book is the development of railway networks in different European countries, including Spain, and their contrast with the gaps and shortcomings of such services in Galicia, specially in the past 20 years due to the neglect by the Spanish state. This is not so much an exercise of advocacy but rather a way to call the authorities’ attention and the attention of technicians, entrepreneurs and society, so that they do not miss the opportunity of the Strategic Plan for Infrastructure and Transport in Spain in order to resolve the situation of the railway in Galicia. The railway here was feeble when it started, it was disabled when it developed and it is about to retire because of absolute malfunctioning.

Book fragment

Although in Galicia there were some unfavourable conditions that caused the railway to be disregarded and even despised by the important economic classes, it was not an isolated effect in our region alone. The railway, until it proved its importance in large cities to move people in an orderly, economic and fast way, until the high speed train was built from Madrid to Seville -- almost eliminating the need for flights between these two cities --, until that time the railway was becoming an object to be kept in a museum.

Lines were closed, services cancelled, the materials sold at low rates… The railway was a decaying means of transport in its final stage and it was even the topic of recurrent jokes about its unpunctuality, the lack of cleanliness of the carriages and stations, the lack of professionalism amongst the staff and the slow pace and lack of comfort of its services. In particular, the young should not believe that I am speaking in apocalyptic terms. For some people of my generation I might be going too far, but for most I am still cautious in my description of things.