Baeza-Utiel Railway (Reolid-Segura) Greenway Nature Trail
History of the Railway
The Segura Greenway is part of the unfinished railway line that was to link the stations of Linares-Baeza in Jaén and Utiel in Valencia. Its origin, back in the second decade of the 20th century, resulted from the great impetus that the Dictatorship of General Primo de Rivera gave to the railway, with the intention of interconnecting the national network, based on a radial design in addition to some transversal lines. It was known as the Guadalhorce Plan.
Its implementation was spoiled by a triple paradox: it arose very late, when the road was beginning to take passengers and loads away from the train; it experienced a painful civil war and post-war famine; and, finally, its tracks crossed depopulated places that were becoming even more depopulated decade after decade.
During Franco’s regime, the World Bank conditioned its credits on the suspension of those projects that were running a deficit (almost all the Guadalhorce Plan’s lines). Therefore, in 1963 a project that had begun 40 years earlier and that was so close to seeing the light of day –and longed-for trains running along it– was terminated.