Pocinho Station Estação Ferroviária do Pocinho
Main building of the Pocinho station, in 2009
General information
Location	Pocinho, Vila Nova de Foz Côa Portugal
Coordinates	41°7′48.43″N 7°7′24.17″W / 41.1301194°N 7.1233806°W / 41.1301194; -7.1233806
Elevation	140 m
Line(s)	Douro line (1887–present), Sabor line (1911–1988)
Platforms	2
Tracks	2
Connections	Douro line Tua Coa Sabor line Moncorvo
History
Opened	10 January 1887 (1887-01-10)
Location
Pocinho Station Location within Portugal

The Pocinho railway station is an interface of the Douro line, which serves the town of Pocinho, in the municipality of Vila Nova de Foz Coa, in northern Portugal. It also served as a junction with the Sabor line during its operation between 1911^[1] and 1988.^[2] Since 1988 it has been the terminus of the Douro Line, given the closure of the section that extended to Barca d'Alva and Spain.^[3]

Description

The station is located near the town of Pocinho, with access via Estação street.^[4]

In January 2011 it had two carriageways, both 817 m long, and two platforms, 139 and 42 m long and 35 cm high. The station also had a public information service provided by the Rede Ferroviária Nacional.^[5] In October 2003, Rede Ferroviária Nacional provided freight handling, shunting and carriage and wagon cleaning services here.^[6] In June 2007, the station also had a water supply service,^[7] and in October 2004 it was rated as a station by the National Railway Network.^[8] The passenger building is located on the south side of the track (right-hand side of the Barca d'Alva railway station).

History

19th century

Map of the Complementary Network north of the Mondego, including the Côa line project. Pocinho station is marked

The section of the Douro line between Tua and Pocinho was opened for operation on 10 January 1887, and was the provisional terminus of the line until the next section, to Côa, went into service on 5 May of the same year.^[1]

20th century

In the Plan for the Complementary Network to the North of Mondego, promulgated by decree on 15 January 1900, a broad gauge link was planned between Pocinho and Vila Franca das Naves, on the Beira Alta line.^[9] This line, together with the Sabor line, had been recommended by the commission responsible for studying the complementary railway network in the north of the country,^[10] and was considered to be of great importance, as it would connect the Douro and Trás-os-Montes regions to Beira Alta and the centre of the country.^[11] In December 1968, the Gabinete de Estudos e Planeamento de Transportes Terrestres had already carried out the study for this line.^[11]

In 1901 a study by the operator Caminhos de Ferro do Estado revealed that this station had road connections with Estrada Real No. 9, on both banks of the Douro River.^[12] On the north bank, it was also served by a branch of Royal Road No. 38, from Mirandela to Vila Flor, which joined Estrada Real No. 9 near the mouth of the Sabor River, and there were plans to build District Road No. 58, which would make it easier for the municipality of Alfândega da Fé to access the station.^[12]

Pocinho station was one of the stations served by the Porto–Medina train, which ran from the beginning of the 20th century until 1914, connecting the city of Porto to Salamanca and Medina del Campo.^[13] The train was resumed in 1919, but was definitively suspended shortly afterwards.^[14]

In 1913, Pocinho station was served by stagecoach routes to Vila Nova de Foz Côa, Touça, Fonte Longa, Poço do Canto and Mêda.^[15]

When the plan for the network north of the Douro was revised by decree on 1 April 1930, one of the narrow gauge railways that was classified was the Côa line, from Pocinho to Idanha-a-Nova, about 183 km long.^[16] It was also suggested at the time to adapt the Douro Line to the algal track between Livração and Pocinho, a project that would connect all the narrow-gauge lines in Trás-os-Montes, but would cause major traffic disruptions.^[16]

In 1933, the Companhia Nacional de Caminhos de Ferro installed a motorised pump on the Douro River to supply the water intake.^[17] The following year, the Comissão Administrativa do Fundo Especial de Caminhos de Ferro approved the modification and extension of the tracks,^[18] and the Companhia dos Caminhos de Ferro Portugueses paved the transhipment quay.^[19] In 1935, the Companhia Nacional de Caminhos de Ferro installed a 20 T weighbridge at this station.^[20]

In 1939, Companhia Nacional de Caminhos de Ferro, the concessionaire of the Sabor line, carried out remodelling work on the Traction, Workshop and Movement Services buildings and on the reservoir at Pocinho station.^[21]

A decree published in Diário do Governo no. 54, Series II, on 5 March 1953, authorised the expropriation of several plots of land next to Pocinho station, to carry out works to modify and expand the station.^[22] That year, Pocinho station was served by at least two bus routes, one to Mêda and the other to Viseu via Sernancelhe.^[23]

On 16 and 17 May 1995, a government commission made a trip to the northern and central regions of the country to visit the developments of the National Road Network. On the first day, the journey between Lisbon and Pocinho was made by train.^[24]

Connection to the Sabor line

On 30 April 1884 the Junta Geral do Distrito de Bragança sent a representation to the Chamber of Deputies asking for the construction of the lines from Foz Tua to Mirandela and from Pocinho to Miranda do Douro.^[25] This request was repeated on 2 July 1890, when the Mirandela Town Council sent a representation to the Chamber of Deputies.^[26]

In 1899 the engineer Cachapuz, who represented a company of Italian financiers, asked the state for permission to install several railway lines in Portugal, one of which was from Pocinho to Moncorvo.^[27] On 15 August of that year, the Minister of Public Works paid a visit to Pocinho.^[28] Later that year, the commission that had been set up to study the Plan for the Complementary Network to the North of the Mondego proposed the construction of a line from Pocinho, which would be used to transport iron ore from Reboredo and alabaster from Vimioso, and which would have a wide track to avoid overflows at Pocinho.^[29]

Due to the opposition of the War Council, the project was changed so that the wide track section would only go as far as Carviçais, while the rest of the line would be narrow track,^[29] this is how the line was classified in the Network Plan, decreed on 15 February 1900.^[29] In 1901, Minister Manuel Francisco de Vargas ordered a tender to be opened for the construction of the Pocinho Bridge, which was to be used by rail and road, and the contract was signed in 1903.^[29] However, due to the great difficulties in building broad gauge in the mountainous terrain on the north bank of the River Douro, and the ease with which the ore could be transhipped at Pocinho, it was decided that the line could be entirely narrow gauge, with the Pocinho Bridge prepared from the outset to receive broad gauge track in the future, should there be any thought of widening the gauge of the line.^[29][30]

On 3 October 1903 the preliminary project for the extension of Pocinho was completed, to also accommodate the new line,^[31] which was presented to the Superior Council of Public Works later that month.^[32] The changes at Pocinho station were made in order to make it as easy as possible to transfer goods, especially ores and alabaster, from the narrow line to the wide track.^[30] In April 1904, the project for the line from Pocinho to Miranda do Douro was approved, and construction began shortly afterwards.^[29]

The first section of the Sabor Line, between Pocinho and Carviçais, was completed in early 1911,^[29] and entered service on 17 September of that year.^[33] After 1947, the E61 and E41 narrow gauge locomotives shunted at this station.^[34]

In the 1950s there was a big increase in traffic on the Sabor line, with two to four ore trains a day from the Reboredo mines to Pocinho, where it was transhipped onto wide-track wagons and then transported to the Port of Leixões, bound for the United Kingdom.^[35]

In 1988, services were closed on the Sabor line, and on the section between Pocinho and Barca d'Alva of the Douro line.^[2] This decision was taken as part of the government's transport strategy at the time, which favored the construction of freeways over rail transport.^[36]

21st century

In 2008, the Northern Region Coordination Commission was looking for private operators to rehabilitate the stretch between Pocinho and Barca d'Alva, and use it for tourist trains, towed by steam locomotives, while the National Railway Network considered that the stretch could be transformed into a greenway.^[37]

In November 2009, the section of the Douro line between the stations of Tua and Régua railway station was closed due to adverse weather and falling barriers, and a replacement road service was organized between Régua and Pocinho.^[38] On 25 December of the same year, a major landslide occurred on the Douro line between Tua and Pocinho stations, interrupting traffic on that section.^[39] In February 2010, the Rede Ferroviária Nacional reported that work had already begun and that the section would be reopened at the end of March.^[40] In the meantime, the connection between the two stations was made using buses and cabs.^[41]

In April 2011, the coordinator of the Douro Mission Structure, Ricardo Magalhães, drew attention to the need to reopen the link between Pocinho and Barca d'Alva and the international connection, arguing that this initiative would be of great interest from a regional point of view, due to the boost it would give to tourism.^[42] At the time, the initiative to reopen the line already had the support of the Spanish government, and would include local municipalities, the regional administration and promoters of tourism and the wine industry.^[42]

On 27 January 2012, four young Spaniards were arrested by soldiers from the National Republican Guard at the Pocinho station when they were graffitiing a parked train.^[43] The young people were brought before the Foz Côa court, which ordered bail of 200 euros and imposed a restraining order of a term of identity and residence.^[43]

In November 2016, the Left Bloc party criticized the state of abandonment of the Douro line and the degradation of services on that route, advocating works on the stations and the electrification of the stretch to Régua, and then to Pocinho and the border.^[44] This announcement followed the Ferrovia 2020 plan, which foresaw the installation of electric traction up to Marco de Canaveses, and which should have been completed by 2016.^[44] On 26 November 2018, the operator Comboios de Portugal suspended traffic on the section of the Douro Line between Caíde and Marco de Canaveses, having guaranteed normal train traffic on the remaining section of the line, from that point to Pocinho.^[45][46]

In June 2019, the Liga dos Amigos do Douro Património Mundial e a Fundação Museu do Douro started a petition for the modernization of the entire Douro Line, including the section from Pocinho to Barca d'Alva, which should be reopened to traffic.^[36] This petition reached more than thirteen thousand signatures, far more than the four thousand needed to bring the issue to parliament, and was delivered on 9 January.^[36]

In October 2019, the mayor of Peso da Régua, José Manuel Gonçalves, questioned the company Comboios de Portugal about a planned cancellation of Regional and Inter-Regional services on the Douro line, including three daily Inter-Regional trains in each direction between Peso da Régua and Pocinho, and the operator assured him that it was not planning to suspend any services on the line.^[47] The mayor also asked whether the company was planning to replace the rolling stock, and whether that which was used during the electrification works would return to service on the line between Marco de Canaveses and Pocinho, and the company replied that various changes were being studied, but would not be put into practice at that time.^[47]