Vigo is Galicia’s industrial capital. Its powerful port was the key to its rise, and in the 20th century the car industry gave it its definitive boost. But we have to go back to March 1878 to see the first train arrive in the “Olive City”. It marked the terminus of a major line stretching all the way from Medina del Campo. At that time, 37 km of track came into service, linking Guillarei (a district of Tui) with Vigo. It wasn’t until 1881 that the line reached Ourense, and nearly 70 years later before it finally connected with Zamora... The company behind that first opening was the Compañía del Ferrocarril de Medina del Campo a Zamora y de Orense a Vigo. It was absorbed in 1928 by the state-run Compañía de los Ferrocarriles del Oeste de España, which in turn was merged into Renfe in 1941.

The stretch followed by today’s Greenway runs entirely parallel to the southern shore of the Vigo estuary. It forms part of the section that links Redondela with the rest of the Galician network, heading towards Pontevedra and Santiago de Compostela. In Vigo, the line once ended at a railway terminal that disappeared many years ago. Located on the outskirts of 19th-century Vigo, Urzáiz station was U-shaped but was taken out of service in 1981, replaced by a new terminal in front of it. Its heritage value spared it from demolition, yet with the arrival of high-speed rail it was dismantled, its façade re-erected in 2022 close to the new terminal.

It was the advent of this new high-speed line that gave rise to today’s Greenway. The modern line runs underground all the way to the new Urzáiz station from beyond the Redondela junction. When the new station and tunnels opened in 2021, the old 19th-century alignment was taken out of use, save for a short stretch that still provides access to the Guixar port.