This line was opened in 1894 by the Compañía de los Caminos de Hierro del Norte de España as a branch of the main Gijón-León line. It was built to transport coal from the Nalón basin, and several steel mills benefited from this line, as they used it to obtain their raw materials and to export their products.[1][2] Duro Felguera would link their mines to this line.[3][4]
In 1936, during the Spanish Civil War, the company suffered serious economic damage.[5] After the war, many employees had been purged by the new authorities and the company's financial situation was extremely poor and in 1941 the new Francoist regime nationalised all the Iberian gauge railways in Spain and incorporated them into the newly formed Renfe.[6][7]
In the following decades this line was used for freight and passengers transportation and its services were commonly known as "Cercanías", but it was perceived as unreliable, so Renfe began plans to create a defined and organised service.[8] However, it was not until 1989 that this name became official, when Renfe created a division responsible for planning and organising these services.[9]
Rolling Stock
Nowadays all services are operated by Civia models [10]
