Barca d'Alva railway station

Barca d'Alva railway station was the terminal station of the Douro Line, until its closure in 1988. The station used to serve Barca d'Alva and acted as a border station between Portugal and Spain, via the Barca d'Alva–La Fuente de San Esteban railway. It is located in the municipality of Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo, in Portugal.

Planning
The first plans to build a border line with Spain in the north of the country were proposed in the mid-19th century, as part of a larger project to construct a commercial port in Leixões. This would serve the city of Porto and the entire north-western region of the Iberian Peninsula, in competition with the Port of Vigo which had the same objective. The proposal for a railway line to Galicia was initially put on hold due to financial difficulties and to the government placing a higher priority on the Linha do Leste railway line between Lisbon and Badajoz. A revised plan was then made to connect Porto to Salamanca in Spain, in an attempt to place that city in Porto's area of influence. Five international connections between Spain and Portugal were approved by a Luso-Spanish technical commission in 1864, including one connecting Barca d'Alva to the Spanish communities of La Fregeneda, Vitigudino and Ledesma. Subsequently, it was decided to build another international line from Salamanca to Formoso, where it would join the Beira Alta line. Originally, the section from Salamanca to Ciudad Rodrigo was to be common to both lines, but the point at which the lines diverged was changed to Boadilla by a Spanish Royal Order of 18 August 1880, at the request of the Portuguese government.

On 20 May 1881, a Royal Order approved the construction of the section from Vilar Formoso to Salamanca, but left the choice of the junction point open, a decision that provoked protests from Lisbon, so a new Royal Order of 3 November 1881 annulled the previous one and ordered the opening of a tender for the two lines. Although the Portuguese state had set a three-year deadline for completion of the works, the "Société Financière de Paris", the operator for the Beira Alta line, claimed that construction would require at least five years. This was also the opinion of the Association of Civil Engineers, which advocated an alternative to continuing the Douro Line. This involved the construction of a new line from Vila Franca das Naves to Régua, which would not only serve the important region to the south of the Douro River, but would also create a new crossing over the river, to supplement the Maria Pia Bridge.

However, Porto's political and financial interests strongly opposed the idea of the Vilar Formoso line being completed before the Barca d'Alva line, fearing that traffic from Spain would be transferred to the Port of Figueira da Foz, damaging trade in the city. At the time, an influential engineer and politician stated that "if the Port is not connected with Salamanca at Barca de Alva, the economic conditions of the Port will change in such a way that in its deserted streets you will see grass growing as in those of any poor decadent town". The government suggested that a syndicate of banks be formed to finance the construction, and only when the work had been completed would the line be handed over to the "Société Financière de Paris", who had a greater interest in completing the line to Vilar Formoso first.

Thus, at a meeting on 28 May 1881 called by the Civil Governor, it was decided to form the Sindicato Portuense, supported by several businessmen and bankers from Porto's commercial sector, to be led by Henrique Burnay. Complicated negotiations with the Société Financière de Paris followed, and a Royal Order of 15 June that year announced the opening of the tender and its conditions. The first article stated that "the contractor undertakes to carry out at its own expense all the work necessary for the establishment of a railway which, starting from Salamanca and forking at Boadilla, heading for the Portuguese border via Ciudad Rodrigo to tie in with the Portuguese Beira Alta line and to another point on the same border at Barca d'Alva, tying in there with the Portuguese Douro line ”. The tender was opened on 12 September and the company represented by Henrique Burnay was the only competitor, resulting in the contract being awarded to them by a Royal Order on 23 September 1881.

On 4 October 1881, the syndicate asked for the interest guarantee to be applied to the stretch between Boadilla and Vilar Formoso, a request that provoked heated discussions in parliament. Those in favour, led by deputy Correia de Barros, claimed that both lines would be busy and that traffic on the Douro Line would increase, so that by 1902 the burden on the public treasury would end. Opponents, especially the deputy António Augusto de Aguiar, criticised the very high costs of the work up to Barca d'Alva, pointed out that it was impossible to complete the work within the deadlines presented, and once again put forward the idea of building the link between the Douro and Beira Alta lines, previously presented by the Association of Civil Engineers. Despite the opposition, the measure was approved on 22 July 1882, and the contract with the syndicate was signed on 12 October of that year.

On 21 February 1883, the company presented a new study for the stretch from Boadilla to Barca d'Alva, which was approved by a Royal Order on 16 August 1883. After some difficult negotiations over the construction of the Agueda Bridge, the project for the last two kilometres from Boadilla to Barca de Alva was authorised by a Royal Order on 28 April 1885. Meanwhile, in January 1885, the union created a company in Spain, the Railway Company from Salamanca to the Portuguese Frontier, which would have the support of the Portuguese and Spanish governments and would be responsible for building and operating the lines in Spain.

Inauguration
The section to Vilar Formoso was opened on 5 June 1886, while the branch to Barca d'Alva reached Lumbrales on 25 July 1887 and was completed on 6 December of that year. On the Portuguese side, the section from Tua to Pocinho opened for operation on 10 January 1887, and the line reached Côa on 5 May. On 2 December, work was completed on the section from Pocinho to Barca d'Alva, and this section was opened on 9 December, along with the international link to Salamanca.

It took around six years for both sections to reach Barca d'Alva, longer than the three years that had been planned by the state and the five years that had been considered necessary by the Société Financière de Paris. These delays led to successive recourse to credit in Paris, which was obtained in increasingly poor conditions and mostly through the influence of the Portuguese government. In the first years of operation, the low income from the lines was insufficient to cover expenses, leading to the bankruptcy of the Porto syndicate. It was replaced by the Porto Docks and Peninsular Railways Company, formed in 1889. However, the Spanish government did not approve, and succeeded in making the Railway Company from Salamanca to the Portuguese Frontier independent.

20th century
In the first half of the 20th century, the restaurant at Barca d'Alva station became famous for the quality of its service, under the direction of Germano Mielgo.

1900s and 1910s
In 1901, there was still no road bridge over the Douro River near the station, and the Estrada Real no. 53 road (later called EN221), which connected the station to various towns on the south bank of the Douro, was still under construction. At the end of 1901, the director of the Minho and Douro Division of the Portuguese State Railways suggested the introduction of first-class carriages on services between this station and Porto. By 1905, the bridge over the Douro had been completed, and repairs to the road between the bridge and the town of Freixo de Espada à Cinta were approved.

In 1904, the Portuguese State Railways administration organised a fast train, passing through Barca d'Alva, where it left some of its rolling stock. However, this train usually ran almost empty from Régua, due to the lack of road connections to the stations from that point. This service, which ran three times a week in each direction, was suspended in 1914 due to the outbreak of the First World War, and resumed in 1919, but shortly afterwards was cancelled indefinitively due to a lack of fuel and the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. In January 1905, an agreement was approved between the Salamanca Company and the Portuguese State Railways to run trains to Barca d'Alva.

In 1913, Barca d'Alva station was served by several stagecoach routes that went to Almeida, Castelo Rodrigo, Escalhão, Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo, Pinhel, Reigada and Vilar Torpim. Later, a bus service ran between Barca d'Alva and Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo.

1920s and 1930s
On 12 July 1924, a Royal Order established a new regime for the organisation of the Spanish railways, with lines being grouped together, including the Railway Company from Salamanca to the Portuguese Frontier. This company was integrated into the National Western Railway Company, which was later incorporated into the National Network of Spanish Railways.

In 1933, the Portuguese Railway Company carried out various repairs and improvements to the station's passenger building, and further repairs were made in 1934. In 1937, trains 751 and 752 were introduced from Porto to Salamanca, which ran three times a week in each direction, with a journey time from Porto to Barca d'Alva of just over 4 hours. These services were interrupted by the outbreak of World War II. In 1939, the border crossing near Barca d'Alva was reopened, so that Porto was again connected to Salamanca.

1950s and 1960s
The Portuguese Railway Gazette reported that international trains would be re-introduced on the line on 14 May 1950, and that the Portuguese Railway Company and the National Network of Spanish Railways were planning to run carriages from Porto to La Fuente de San Esteban, to avoid the need for transhipment at Barca d'Alva.

In the mid-1950s, the Almirante Sarmento Rodrigues Bridge next to Barca d'Alva was completed, improving road access to the station. Before the bridge was built, the Douro was crossed by boat. One of the regular users of this system was the writer Guerra Junqueiro, who would take the train to Barca d'Alva and then cross the river to his estate on the other bank, the Quinta da Batoca. Until then, the only road access to the station and the town of Barca d'Alva was a road to Escalhão. With the opening of the bridge, Barca d'Alva could easily be reached from Torre de Moncorvo and Freixo de Espada à Cinta.

In 1956, changes were made to the Spanish train timetables which greatly affected traffic at Barca d'Alva, as the connections between national and international trains were removed, forcing passengers to spend the night at the station or travel by road to Vilar Formoso, where they could catch the Sud Express. This change was introduced at the same time as the Spanish government was investing heavily in the line through Vilar Formoso, including adapting it for higher-speed trains, and expanding the town of Fuentes de Oñoro, on the Spanish side of the border near Vilar Formoso.

In the 1960s, direct services from Porto to Salamanca were resumed, using CP Class 0400 railcars.

Decline and closure
The Douro Line and its international connection never saw as much traffic as had been expected, both nationally and internationally, and also failed to attract goods from the Salamanca plateau to the Port of Leixões. In addition, the border line had a large number of metal bridges, which would be very expensive to replace. Together, these factors resulted in the closure of the international section in the middle of the 20th century. At the time, there was already support for keeping the line in Portugal, due to the potential of the Douro Line as a tourist destination, together with the promotion of Port wine.

In 1979, the National Network of Spanish Railways operated a railcar between Barca d'Alva and La Fuente de San Esteban.

In 1984, the Spanish state decided to close the section between La Fuente de San Esteban and La Fregeneda, leaving the international section between La Fregeneda and Barca d'Alva without any services. The closure took place on 1 January 1985.

In 1988, the section between Pocinho and Barca d'Alva was closed. The station closed on 18 October 1988.

21st Century
In 2006, the Camino de Hierro Cultural Association, based in Salamanca, was planning the restoration of the line from Fuente de San Esteban to Barca d'Alva, for tourism purposes. The estimated value of the work would be around 24 million euros, which would be spent on safety measures and the renovation of the railway track and stations. That institution also considered reopening the section to Pocinho, so that tourist trains could connect to cruises coming from Porto.

In September 2008, Via Libre magazine reported that the Coordination Commission for the Northern Region of Portugal was looking for investors for steam traction tourist trains on the route between Pocinho and Barca d'Alva, a project that would cost around 600,000 euros. On the other hand, the National Railway Network, which at the time managed the railway infrastructure in Portugal, was planning to turn that section into a greenway.

On 9 January 2020, a delegation led by Luís Pedro Martins, president of Tourism in Porto and the North of Portugal, delivered a petition to the Portuguese Parliament calling for the entire Douro Line to be refurbished and for the section to the Spanish border to be reopened. Luís Pedro Martins argued that this measure would bring great benefits to tourism, as it would allow visitors to better explore the region. It would be a major investment in an inland area of the country, challenging the tendency to invest in developments on the coastal strip, and would be part of a major strategy to promote the Douro Wine Region as a World Heritage Site. The delegation also included representatives from the municipalities of Peso da Régua, Torre de Moncorvo and Sabrosa and the Douro Intermunicipal Community, as well as representatives from the League of Friends of the Douro World Heritage Site, of the Douro Museum Foundation and other organisations from the north of the country. That month, the Minister for Infrastructure and Housing, Pedro Nuno Santos, gave an interview to the newspaper Público, in which he discussed the implementation of a national railway plan, which should include the reopening and modernisation of several sections of closed railway track, including the one from Pocinho to Barca d'Alva, which would be electrified.

Literary references
The station appears in the book The City and the Mountains, by Eça de Queirós: