The scent of jasmine, the blue of the Mediterranean and the shade of palm trees evoke the summer atmosphere of Alicante in the early 1970s. A time that fades into memory until it seems like a dream. More than half a century later, I’m still listening … Station bell San Juan Beach Who warned of the arrival of the train bound for Alicante. An 8 km journey along the sea and ended at Postiguet Beach.
It was in the summer of 1969 when my father rented an apartment near the park and took the whole family, along with my mother and three brothers, from there. Burgos To Alicante on A Seat 1500 yellow. The trip took about two days because we always stopped to sleep Kindergarten In a roadside hotel. We arrived at our destination early the next afternoon. The itinerary was repeated continuously until 1973, the last summer we spent there.
I loved getting up early to wander the empty streets of Alicante and watch people drinking coffee at the stalls in the little squares. At noon, we hopped in the car to spend the day at San Juan Beach, where you can still park your car without difficulty and eat paella at the beach bar.
My routine remains unchanged At around five in the afternoon, while my family was winding down its final hours at the beach, I took Trinette de la Marina back to the city. It was a narrow-gauge railway line that ran in both directions for 92 kilometers between them Denia and Alicante. The train stops at Calpe, Altea, Benidorm, Villajoyosa, El Campello, then San Juan and finally Alicante Marina Station, a two-storey building with platforms adjacent to the sea.
I remember the high-rise apartment buildings of Albuferita, visible under a rock, at the entrance to Alicante. Many swimmers boarded the carriages to mingle with the usual train crowd, townsfolk traveling to the capital. It was a microcosm dissipating upon my arrival at that station, which I always recognize with the beach and the palm trees and the smell of saltpeter. My attention was caught by the ice cream sellers peddling their carts along the promenade. postegate.
Swimmers boarded the carriages to mingle with the train crowd and townspeople traveling to the capital.
The Trent Navy no longer exists. Today service is provided by Valencian State Railways. It was then operated by FEVE, which inherited it after the state was forced to nationalize the line in 1964 after it stopped making a profit. In 1970, the railway only had one track and was not electrified if I remember correctly.
The project to connect Alicante to the marina originated in 1882 when the government granted a construction and exploitation permit to the Alicante businessman Juan Bautista Lavora. But the initiative did not flourish due to economic and bureaucratic problems. We had to wait until 1902, which is when it happened Alicante Railway Company to the MarinaWhich took over the purchase of land and construction of the road. Eight years later, the company went bankrupt and the work remained unfinished.
The Ministry of Public Works granted the concession again to another private company that continued the section between Villajoyosa and Denia. Alfonso XIII Lay the first stone. Finally, on October 28, 1914, the road that reached Altea was opened. The following year, the service was extended to Denia, the capital of Marina Alta. today Trinit It is a shadow of a past that may not have existed.
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