Asked unlikely way at the bottom of a narrow valley in the Spanish Pyrenees, a few hundred metres from the French border, station “International” Canfranc surprises by its vastness. Still in service, It would be the second largest in Europe; but it serves a village of barely one thousand souls and has more international than the sobriquet.
Border station between the France and the Spain, the change of train was required because different gauges between the two networks. The prestige of the Spaniards will bequeathed these gigantic facilities : time of splendour, the station housed luxury hotel, restaurants, post offices of the two countries, but also of large banks of transshipment for goods, a rotunda…
From its opening in 1928, the operation is disappointing : at most 50 passengers per day. Although this route is – on a map – the shortest between Paris and Madrid, the profile of the line makes little attractive transit times. History has not been lenient : economic crisis 1929, Spanish civil war, 2e world war (where the line has seen a part of nazi gold taken in Spain and the Portugal, as evidenced by waste paper recently discovered in an annex), until an accident on the side of french gives a pretext to SNCF to close “on an interim basis” line in 1970 and sealed the fate of the station, who is abandoned completely 1982.
Ironically, the bus coming from Oloron via the Aspe Valley even does not correspond with the two daily railcars of the Spanish railways. Long sea serpent, the reopening of the line on the side of french seems to clarify gently : the Pau-Oloron section was rebuilt a few years ago, a small portion will be reopened soon and operations of clearing on the rest of the line were conducted. Station, as for it, should be transformed into a set including a luxury hotel. The construction had begun, was given a new roof to the building but actually an empty shell. But another crisis is mixed : one of 2008 that has affected Spain head-on, and the project was abandoned so suddenly that workers have left behind their helmets and their tools. In the meantime a hypothetical conversion, the facilities are open to all the winds…
To go further, one very comprehensive article on the subject
