Narrow-gauge railways in Portugal
Portugal formerly had several hundred kilometres of narrow-gauge railways, but by 2010 only two lines were still in operation – the Vouga line and the Metro de Mirandela. The lines were operated by Comboios de Portugal and maintained by REFER (or the predecessor CP). History. The majority of railway lines in Portugal were built to . To reduce construction costs, some lines (notably in rural and mountainous parts of the country) were built to narrow gauge. Portugal's narrow gauge railways were largely built to metre gauge. The lines were mostly constructed from the 1880s onwards , with the final line not completed until as late as 1949. The first major wave of closures took place in the 1980s, notably the Sabor line and the Dão line. The northern extremities of the Corgo, Tâmega and Tua lines (all running north from main Douro line through the Douro Valley) were closed in 1990/1, with the rest of these lines closing in 2008/9. Rolling stock. The narrow-gauge lines were steam-operated, predominantly by Mallet locomotives, for much of their existence. Diesel railcars were introduced as an economy measure in the 1940s, notably the Série 9100 built in Sweden  for the Tâmega line in 1949 and the Dutch-built Série 9300 railcars used on several other lines from the early 1950s onwards. The Série 9700 diesel multiple units were purchased secondhand from the Yugoslav Railways in 1980, but frequently proved unreliable. Metre-gauge diesel locomotives were built to replace steam haulage, especially on freight or mixed trains, notably the Série 9020 built in 1976. Steam remained in use on some lines until the 1980s. Trams. The tram system in Lisbon, operated by Carris, is also narrow gauge – with a track gauge.