Summary - TST 6
TRANSPORTES, SERVICIOS Y TELECOMUNICACIONES
Domingo Cuéllar Villar
Un modelo ferroviario de ciclo minero: Auge y declive del ferrocarril en el Sureste Andaluz
[Download the complete article in pdf format]
<<< SUMMARY TST 6
Key words:
Economic history; rail transport; andalusian southeast; iron
mining.
[ Abstract ]
The birth and development of the railway in the southeast of Spain make up a separate model of broad gauge traffic implementation in Spain, as it was based on the almost exclusive contribution of foreign capital and on the submission of its development to the extractive industry. The two main railway companies —Compañía de los Caminos de Hierro del Sur de España and The Great Southern of Spain Railway— show a series of common characteristics, in spite of some divergences, that provide that character of model to the development of the railway in the southeast corner of the Iberian Peninsula.
The late implementation of this means of transport, the high establishment costs, the poor operating yields, submitted to the needs of the English markets, and the scarce effects of drag raised within the economic environment reveal a clear contrast with other Spanish railway companies as their role was underlined by the passenger transportation and by the crop commodities with a greater influence in the development of the interior market.
The mining cycle ending, mostly oriented to the English markets supply (40s), and the development of Spanish siderurgical industry fuelled the market changes so as to evolve in an important supplier of the domestic blast furnace (Asturias, Pais Vasco and Valencia). The clear inability to get a greater share of the passenger and domestic goods traffics, determined by the obvious demographic deficiencies of the area, has shaped a panorama that shows the failure of the railway in the Spanish southeast, proved at present in the closing of railway lines and in the underrated services of the railway.
[ Abstract ]
The birth and development of the railway in the southeast of Spain make up a separate model of broad gauge traffic implementation in Spain, as it was based on the almost exclusive contribution of foreign capital and on the submission of its development to the extractive industry. The two main railway companies —Compañía de los Caminos de Hierro del Sur de España and The Great Southern of Spain Railway— show a series of common characteristics, in spite of some divergences, that provide that character of model to the development of the railway in the southeast corner of the Iberian Peninsula.
The late implementation of this means of transport, the high establishment costs, the poor operating yields, submitted to the needs of the English markets, and the scarce effects of drag raised within the economic environment reveal a clear contrast with other Spanish railway companies as their role was underlined by the passenger transportation and by the crop commodities with a greater influence in the development of the interior market.
The mining cycle ending, mostly oriented to the English markets supply (40s), and the development of Spanish siderurgical industry fuelled the market changes so as to evolve in an important supplier of the domestic blast furnace (Asturias, Pais Vasco and Valencia). The clear inability to get a greater share of the passenger and domestic goods traffics, determined by the obvious demographic deficiencies of the area, has shaped a panorama that shows the failure of the railway in the Spanish southeast, proved at present in the closing of railway lines and in the underrated services of the railway.