Agnita railway line

Agnita railway line
The Agnita line joining the mainline.
Overview
Status	Closed
Owner	CFR Infrastructură
Locale	Sibiu County, Romania Historically also Mureș County
Termini	Sighișoara Sibiu
Stations	8 (Historically: 19)
Service
Type	Narrow-gauge
System	Căile Ferate Române
Operator(s)	CFR Călători
History
Opened	1898 & 1910
Closed	1965 & 2001
Technical
Line length	Sibiu–Agnita 58 km (36 mi) (Historically: Sibiu–Sighișoara 109 km (68 mi))
Number of tracks	1
Character	Rural Branch line
Track gauge	760 mm (2 ft 5+15⁄16 in) Bosnian gauge
Route map  300  to Basarab Sighișoara  300  to Oradea Angofa Șaeș River Șaeș Șaeș River Apold Brădeni Mureș County Sibiu County Netuș Iacobeni Stejărișu Ruja Agnita Coveș Coveș River Vărd Benești Alțâna Nocrich Țichindeal Hosman Vurpăr Roșia Cornățel Cașolț Bolovani  200  to Brașov Mohu A 1 Șelimbăr Sibiu Triaj Ateliere zonă Sibiu  200  to Curtici

The Agnita railway line was a 760 mm (2 ft 5+15⁄16 in) Bosnian gauge rail line in Sibiu County, Romania. Originally it ran from Sibiu railway station to Sighișoara in Mureș County. There also was a branch line to Vurpăr. However the final section from Sibiu to Agnita was closed in 2001. Căile Ferate Române (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 Sighișoara – Sibiu Local Railways Company which started work from Sighișoara in 1895 reaching Agnita by 1898 and Sibiu in 1910. 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, with the rest of the line following in 2001.

Reopening

Societatea Feroviară de Turism (SFT) originally planned to reopen the line as a tourist route but plans were 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; it operates occasional tourist steam trains on parts of the line.

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 Cornățel station.

Bibliography

• Lacriţeanu, Șerban (1995). "The Narrow Gauge Lines of the Romanian State Railway (CFR)". In Keith Chester (ed.). 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.