The Tua Line
The Tua Line
Updated at October 19th 2008
The miles and stories of one of the most wild Portuguese railway, and the dangers that it faces nowadays.
On the tracks since January 26th 2007
What's new?
Map
Available for download the stretch, stations and works of art between Tua and Carvalhais, corrected to a newer version of Google Earth (TM).
History
The Mirandela to Bragança History now available!
The Tua Line is a railway line in the North-Eastern Trás-os-Montes, Northern Portugal. It's a metric gauge line, also know as Narrow Gauge (NG), that starts at the Foz do Tua village station in the Douro Vinhateiro region (World Heritage by UNESCO), and that, at its maximum extension, crossed over 134Km of land towards its terminus at Bragança. Nowadays, only 58Km of track remains explored, between Tua, Mirandela and Carvalhais, and 54Km of those (Tua - Mirandela) are in grave danger of being permanently closed.
On its way, the train crosses a magnificent landscape of deep valleys and great rocks through bridges, walls and tunnels. It's between the most difficult lines to be built in Portugal, and one of the most beautiful and wild of them all. The Douro steam train makes its turn back to Régua manoeuvres at the first station of the Tua Line, witch is the Tua station, common to the Douro Line also. This historical train has tremendous demand, and allows the passengers to a visit not only to the Douro river valley, but at the Tua's as well.
Before its closing become an inevitability, it is this site's subject to show this unique railway line, as well as all its potential and importance to the region that is crossed by it, in order to the people to know and enjoy its lovelies, as well as allow the train to keep serving the locals, whose isolation will be dramatic if the line ever get closed.
Visit the Tua Line, in video:
