Agnita railway line

Agnita railway line
The Agnita line joining the mainline.
Overview
Type	Narrow-gauge
System	Căile Ferate Române
Status	Closed
Locale	Sibiu County, Romania Historically also Mureș County
Termini	Sighișoara Sibiu
Stations	8 (Historically 19)
Operation
Opened	1898 & 1910
Closed	1965 & 2001
Owner	CFR Infrastructură
Operator(s)	CFR Călători[1]
Character	Rural Branch line
Technical
Line length	Sibiu - Agnita 58 km (36 mi) (Historically Sibiu - Sighișoara 109 km (68 mi))
Number of tracks	1
Route map Agnita railway line & Vurpăr branch map Legend Mainline 300 to Sighișoara Angofa Șaeș (river) Şaeş Șaeș (river) Apold Brădeni Mureș County Sibiu County Netuş Iacobeni Stejărişu Ruja Agnita Coveș Coveș River Vărd Benești Alțâna Nocrich Vurpăr Țichindeal Roșia Hosman Cornățel Cașolț Bolovani Mainline 200 to Sibiu

The Agnita railway line was a Narrow-gauge rail line in Sibiu County, Romania. Originally it stretched from Sibiu railway station to Sighișoara^[2] in Mureș County. There also was a branch line to Vurpăr. However the final section from Sibiu to Agnita was closed in 2001. CFR classed the line, along with the Vurpăr branch, as line 204 in the last years of operation. The Sibiu Steam Locomotives Museum holds the last remaining original locomotive from 1896.

History

The line was originally built by the Sighisoara - Sibiu Local Railways Company which started work from Sighișoara in 1895 reaching Agnita by 1898 and Sibiu in 1910.^[3] The Vurpăr branch was opened at the same time as the Sibiu extension. As the line originally lay within Hungary, the Hungarian State Railways operated services until 1919 (when Transylvania became part of Romania). CFR then continued to operate services until 1965 when the original section from Sighișoara to Agnita was closed. In 1993 the Vurpăr branch line was closed^[4] with the rest of the line following in 2001.^[5]

Reopening

Societatea Feroviară de Turism (SFT) originally planned to reopen the line as a tourist route but plans where shelved in 2006. After threats from CFR Infrastructură that track would be lifted all the rail infrastructure became protected as a historic monument in 2008.

Currently there is an active project called Asociația Prietenii Mocăniței ("Friends of the Narrow-gauge railway") and aimed at restoring the line for tourist operation and operates occasional tourist steam trains on parts of the line.^[6]

The first steam event took place in Agnita in 2010 on the occasion of the Sibiu extension's centenary. There was a second event in September 2015 with special trains running from Cornăţel station.^[7]

Bibliography

• Lacriţeanu, Șerban (1995). "The Narrow Gauge Lines of the Romanian State Railway (CFR)". In Keith Chester. East European narrow gauge. Clevedon (UK): Channel View Publications. pp. 82–94. ISBN 1-873150-04-0. 
• Engelbert, Paul (2011). Schmalspurig durch Ungarn II: die ehemals ungarischen Gebiete (in German). Malmö: Stenvalls. ISBN 978-91-7266-177-6. 

References