The narrow-gauge railways of Girona province and the Girona greenways

Girona Greenways Board and the Culture Department of Girona Provincial Council have produced a documentary on the history of the different small trains that used to serve the province of Girona and how these old railway lines have been converted into today’s Girona greenways.

The documentary provides an overall view of the secondary railway network in Girona province including the Palamós-Flaçà tramline and the narrow gauge lines linking Sant Feliu de Guíxols with Girona and Girona with Olot. It also features the stretch of wide-gauge railway line running from Ripoll to Sant Joan de les Abadesses and on to Toralles, from where production from the Ogassa mines was transported down to Barcelona industrial area.

The documentary also brings us some historical images of these trains, including shots from the NODO (Franco regime newsreel) film entitled The nine-fifteen; trains filmed by Manolo Maristany, Martí Sans, Joan Capdevila and Jaume Buxó; and glimpses of the Olot train from an unsigned film made in the early 1920s. Also of interest are the oral contributions from Notary Lluís Figa Faura, the industrial engineer and director of the Sant Feliu de Guíxols and Olot trains, as well as other workers on these little trains.

As time went by, all these railway lines were closed down for different reasons and disappeared from the Girona countryside, but their routes still survive today as testimony to the past.

The documentary ends by showing how those railway routes that were falling into disuse have been converted into the three Girona greenways of today: the Iron and Coal Route from Ripoll to Ogassa (via Sant Joan de les Abadesses) and the two narrow-gauge routes from Olot to Girona and from Girona to Sant Feliu de Guíxols.

Finally, we are shown how today’s greenways running along the former railway routes provide a wide range of amenities for both local people and visitors to Girona province.

The documentary is in Spanish, Catalan and English.