Temporary exhibition at Atxuri (Bilbao) to mark the 40th Euskotren Anniversary

Euskotren has organised an exhibition at Atxuri station looking back over the history of the company. It is an opportunity for the public to learn about items of great historical importance in the evolution of public transport (fixtures and fittings, route posters, clocks, lamps and old portable telephones, models, etc.).

On 24 May 1982, the Basque Government approved a new publicly-owned company, Eusko Trenbideak/Ferrocarriles Vasco, S.A., whose corporate purpose would be to streamline the management of the metric-gauge railways transferred by the Spanish central government between 1978 and 1979. Therefore, May 2022 marks 40 years from that first public initiative that has led to Euskotren becoming the leading transport operator in the Basque Country over those four decades. 

Along with the overview of Euskotren’s history, exhibition also features items of great importance in the history of public transport:  a set of stationmaster’s kit, route posters, clocks, lamps and old portable telephones, the traditional railway pot or putxera, different models of the rolling stock, etc. 

The temporary exhibition can be visited free of charge until the end of the year.  The opening hours will be from 4.00 p.m. to 8.00 p.m. Monday to Friday and from 10.00 a.m. to 2.00 p.m. and from 4.00 p.m. to 8.00 p.m. at weekends and on public holidays. 

Even though Euskotren is celebrating forty years as a publicly-owned company, its roots can in fact be traced back to 1882, when its oldest line came into service: the railway from Bilbao to Durango. 

Down through these 140 years, the railway has generated a rich heritage in the Basque Country that Euskotren has always known how to showcase. Thus, it opened its Basque Railway Museum in 1994. It is based in the old Azpeitia station (Gipuzkoa) and boasts one of Europe’s most important collections of narrow-gauge rolling stock.