Last stop, underwater: the Spanish railway line being devoured by the sea
The sea sparkles and laps against the shore of the Maresme coast, north of Barcelona, as the train runs alongside it, passing the few hopeful spring sunbathers and surfers. At points, Spain’s oldest train line runs so close to the shore it feels as if you’re travelling on the sea itself.
Last Sunday, that could well have happened. Heavy waves took a giant bite out of the coast, threatening a section of the track with collapse and forcing the train company to lay on a bus service between La Pineda and Malgrat de Mar.
It wasn’t the first time, and it won’t be the last: coastal erosion and rising sea levels have put the future of the famed Maresme line in jeopardy. In January 2020, storm Gloria battered the line with 3.6-metre (12ft) waves, causing widespread damage and putting several sections out of action. Adif, the company responsible for railway infrastructure, spent €12m (£10m) repairing and shoring up a 1.4-mile (2.2km) stretch of track and replacing a bridge. Smaller beaches were washed away entirely, removing even the thin buffer between trains and waves.
“One more Gloria and that will be the end of the train line,” says Antoni Esteban of Preservem el Maresme, an umbrella organisation representing 115 community, conservation and other groups in the region.
Opened in 1848, the Maresme line links Barcelona with Blanes, 70km away, at the edge of the Costa Brava. The service was conceived to transport the Barcelona bourgeoisie to their summer residences.
Since the 1970s, the Maresme population has grown exponentially. The train now passes through 16 growing towns with a combined population of about 500,000. There are 37 beaches and five marinas along the way. On working days, about 100,000 people use the service, and in
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