page_title: Canfranc International railway station
section_title: Present
hierarchical_section_title: Canfranc International railway station / Present
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Le côté des voies ferroviaires françaises de la gare internationale de Canfranc (Aragon, Espagne).
context_page_description: Canfranc International railway station is a former international railway station in the village of Canfranc in the Spanish Pyrenees. The Somport railway tunnel, which carried the Pau–Canfranc railway under the Pyrenees into France, is located at one end of the station.
  The station, which was opened during July 1928, was constructed on a grand scale to serve as a major hub for cross-border railway traffic. Its main building incorporates elaborate Beaux-Arts architecture, featuring 365 windows and 156 doors, along a length of 240 metres. The station experienced numerous highs and lows, services having been temporarily interrupted by the intentional sealing of the Somport tunnel during the Spanish Civil War, while being extensively used by international traffic during the Second World War as the ‘Casablanca in the Pyrenees’. The postwar era brought a period of stability and prosperity for the station and the line, although officials became increasingly pessimistic for its future during the 1960s. International services came to an abrupt end during 1970 following a train derailment that damaged a key bridge in France.
context_section_description: Since the closure of the through route, much of the station and its facilities have been neglected and have become inoperative. Large portions of the site have become overgrown, but the majority of the buildings have remained largely intact and can be entered. The main building has been re-roofed, but is otherwise in a state of disrepair, and thus is fenced off and remains closed to the general public outside of guided tours during July and August. Between 2013 and 2017, approximately 120,000 people, mostly Spaniards, toured the station, a greater number than had used the station when it was in service.
  During the 2010s, the railway station, using its more modest facilities, has been open for the twice daily passenger trains to and from Zaragoza-Delicias railway station, plus the occasional freight train to the grain silo. During 2007, the station was declared to be a Site of Cultural Interest.
  The government of Aragon has long held various ambitions for the rehabilitation of the station. Plans have been mooted to redevelop the main station building into a hotel, which would involve the construction of a new station beside it to replace it. There have been explorations of options to reopen the through line as the "western trans-Pyrenean line"; this initiative shall reportedly involve the assistance of the government of Aquitaine, the adjacent French region. In February 2020, it was announced that funding from the European Union had been made available for the purpose of reopening the through line and relaunching international services.
caption: Abandoned side of the Canfranc international railway station in 1994
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