The Regional Minister of Transport has presented “the Railway from Amorebieta to Bermeo”

19/10/05 - The Regional Minister of Transport and Public Works of the Basque Government, Nuria López de Guereñu, has presented, in Bermeo, the work titled “The Railway from Amorebieta to Bermeo”, an arduous investigation and documentation project written by Juanjo Olaizola Elordi and published on the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Pedernales-Bermeo section of the line.

EuskoTren’s General Manager, José Miguel Mugika, the Mayors of Bermeo, Mundaka, Sukarrieta, Busturia, Forua and Gernika and relatives of some of the people whose work and effort has made this project possible were also at the act, which was held in the Nestor Basterretxea hall in the said fishing village.

“The Railway from Amorebieta to Bermeo” has been dedicated, in the words of its author, "to all those workers and passengers that each day keep the Urdaibai train alive, and especially to the prisoners, militiamen and "gudaris" (regional soldiers) victims of the Franco regime, who, with their effort made the long awaited dream of a railway line to Bermeo come true”.

Juanjo Olaizola Elordi (San Sebastián, 1965) is currently the Director of the Basque EuskoTren Railway Museum and an expert and author of other works connected with Railways.


A CENTENARIAN TRAIN

The history of the Bermeo railway began on March 22nd, 1882, when the Civil Government of Biscay commissioned Francisco Rispa Perpiña to prepare the studies required to build a railway line between Amorebieta, Gernika and Bermeo.

The construction of the railway line, firstly to Gernika and later to Sukarrieta was performed quite quickly. The Amorebieta-Gernika section opened on August 13th, 1888, and the route between Gernika and Sukarrieta opened on March 15th, 1893.

However, the third phase, the line to Bermeo, was clearly more complicated as it had to cross the hazardous cliffs in the area. Due to this and to other circumstances, the project was delayed for decades.

Meanwhile, the railway connection between Pedernales and Bermeo was, in the first instance, replaced by a tram pulled by mules and horses and, after 1918, by buses and lorries.

Work restarted in 1944, although the economic backing was not available until 1952. Problems due to the lack of labour were solved by using prisoners of the Franco regime who were doing their time in the Bermeo penitentiary.

On August 16th, 1955, the extension of the Amorebieta to Guernica and Pedernales railway line became operational between the latter town and Bermeo. The entire process had taken over seventy years of projects to provide this coastal village with the most modern means of transport at the time, the train.

Since 1979, the Amorebieta-Bermeo trunk line has been managed by EuskoTren, a Public Company dependent on the Basque Government Department of Transport and Public Works.