The Malta Independent on Sunday
The closure of the Malta Railway
According to Wikipedia, Mussolini proclaimed that an Italian air raid destroyed the Maltese railway system in 1940, even though the Railway had been closed for nine years. This is the kind of cheap propaganda that was fed by the Axis forces to their mainly gullible native populations. The real story of the closure of the Malta Railway is found in ‘The Railway Magazine’ of July 1934, which carried an article, titled, The closing of the Malta Railway by A. S. Coase
The Railway Magazine is a monthly British railway magazine, aimed at the railway enthusiast market, that has been published in London since July 1897.
In his article, A. S. Coarse makes it clear that the closure of the Malta Railway was a necessary evil due to the rising popularity of the motor vehicle. When we say motor vehicle, we understand the introduction of motor cars in Malta in 1914 and bus manufacturing, which were becoming more popular modes of transport during the early 1920s.
Moreover, he states that a full account of this rising popularity was carried in The Railway Magazine of October 1929. Also, Malta had its own Tram system which was operated by The Malta Tramways Ltd company. This firm operated electric tramways in Malta from 23 February 1905 till its closure in 1929. Now it was the turn of the closure of the Malta Railways in 1931.
The story of the birth of what was commonly known as Ilvapur ta’ l-art (land ship) took place in 1883. It was built by a London-registered company. The prospectus of this company, which had been filed in the Malta Public Library, shows that apart from the route completed, it was confidently anticipated that branch lines would be added down to the harbour and quayside and round to Sliema, which was and still is a favourite residential area. But none of these branches were ever begun and after some years of working difficulties, the government took over the line. It was re-opened, after re-conditioning, in 1892.
Some interesting data about the Malta Railway emerge from Coase’s article:
The Malta Railway was sevenand-a-half miles long, of metre gauge
It was single-tracked except for passing loops at stations
It ran from just within the main gate Porta Reale at Valletta, into a tunnel 730 yards long, under the fortifications, and beyond that was carried on up to the Old Capital of Mdina, which is 600 feet above sea level
In all there were six stations and five halts on the line
The journey took 35 minutes There were only two semaphore signals on the line; telephone bells controlled the train movements and the points at the stations were hand-worked
A booking clerk would receive requests for tickets. The railway passed under Mdina by a tunnel 600 yards long to the Museum Terminus, which served the Roman Villa Museum and the neighbouring Imtarfa Military Hospital and the Barracks.
Interestingly, no accident appears to have taken place during the lifetime of the railway, which is considered as an enviable record. There were nine 0-6-0 and 2-6-4 tank engines in all, supplied from England at various dates, seven of which were in service until the closing down and 33 four-wheeled first and third class passenger coaches, weighing about 6 tons each, built at the Ħamrun works, with some open-sided workmen’s carriages.
There was no goods traffic, but four trucks were built for transport of railway materials. In its heyday, the line carried approximately 2,000,000 passengers annually, at rates of 1d. per mile first class and ½d. per mile third. The coaches were built to carry 24 or 28 persons each and as they travelled in the rush hours with passengers tightly packed, both inside and outside, the hauling capacities of the engines up the grades of 1 in 40 and 1 in 60 were severely tested with a maximum load of 12 coaches.
At Ħamrun station, the late headquarters, grass grew on the points and tracks, but the adjoining workshops were still being put to service as a government engineering training centre. Ħamrun station was still beautifully kept. The gardens of all stations were always a feature of note, being supplied with rainwater from the station roofs, stored in specially constructed sunken tanks. A fence across the line formed the barrier in one direction at Ħamrun, and in the other, the track had been broken by the demolotion of the picturesque bridge over the Sliema road to allow the passage of double-deck motor buses. At Birkirkara station all traces of the railway had disappeared; the level crossing had been removed and the station garden was converted into a beautiful public garden.
At the end of the article the author thanked Mr C. Rizzo, late manager of the Malta Railway for his courtesy in granting facilities to take photographs which were reproduced in the article.
What is left of the railway is mainly in model form. These are exhibited at the Malta Railway Musuem which is found at 37 Triq San Duminku, Attard. Nicholas Azzopardi has done research on the Malta Railway in the early 60s and 70s and in 1985 he exhibited for the first time his model of all the railway stations in Malta which existed during the 1883-1931 period. Models are in Scale 1:160.
The eternal debate on traffic congestion in Malta has been reignited with numerous ideas how to solve it. Some suggest an underground metro system, others cable cars while others still romanticise about constructing a railway system. The problems in having a railway system are numerous and include mainly the high density of builings per square mile.
Without ruling out any of the above solutions as simplistic to the Malta traffic problem, one should protect Malta’s heritage, no less what is left of the remnants of the Malta Railway System both above and under ground.