The final part of the route of the old Baeza-Utiel railway runs through the rural district of Sierra de Segura in the province of Jaén. Starting in the province of Albacete, the railway runs through a landscape of rolling hills dominated by olive trees. One of its sections runs through the Sierras de Cazorla, Segura y Las Villas Natural Park.
This Natural Trail - Greenway has been carried out within the framework of the Natural Trails Programme of the Ministerio de Agricultura, Alimentación y Medio Ambiente. More info (Spanish)>>
Between Km 217 of the N-322 road (municipality of Arroyo del Ojanco) and the Jaén-Albacete provincial boundary (municipality of Villarrodrigo).
JAÉN.
Municipalities: Arroyo del Ojanco, Segura de la Sierra, Puente de Génave, La Puerta de Segura, Génave and Villarrodrigo.
Length:27 km.
User profile:
Accessibility level: (*) Suitable and practicable. With the occasional slope.
(*) Once over the river Guadalimar, the former railway line strikes out in a long straight line punctuated by a number of rural path overcrossings. Unfortunately, for 1.5 km the track bed has been occupied by a narrow asphalted lane providing access to a biogas plant, but a parallel track has been laid as an alternative route. This track avoids the greenway having to be shared by heavy traffic, but involves climbing and descending a number of short, steep slopes required to negotiate the overcrossings. However, the asphalted surface makes it viable for cyclists, walkers, and persons of reduced mobility.
Type of surface:compacted gravel.
Natural setting:
Sierras de Cazorla, Segura y Las Villas Natural Park, olive tree countryside of rolling hills and ridges, riparian woodland of the River Guadalimar, and beautiful panoramic views of the Sierra Morena mountains.
Cultural heritage:
Arroyo del Ojanco: Roman Culture Interpretation Centre.
Segura de la Sierra: castle and town (declared Picturesque Landscape and Historic Artistic Site), Santa María del Collado Parish Church, Town Hall, Imperial Fountain, Jorge Manrique’s House, Los Jesuitas Church, bullring, Arabic baths, town wall sections, towers, and gateways.
Puente de Génave: remains of the old Roman bridge over the Guadalimar.
La Puerta de Segura: San Mateo Church, Barrio de Beas and El Peñón (the village centre), the Paseo del Guadalimar riverside promenade, and the Castle Tower.
Génave: La Tercia Tower, La Laguna Tower, and Inmaculada Concepción Church.
Villarrodrigo: Las Defensas de Frontera historical interpretation centre in the tower of the old castle.
Infrastructures:
Greenway. Cut and cover tunnels and overpasses. Standout features include the River Guadalimar Viaduct and the Génave Tunnel.
Facilities:
Information and evacuation panels, signs, railings, bollards, and replanting of the greenway borders. Rest areas with tables, benches, litter bins and cycle parking. Access to stations.
The start of the Segura Greenway is marked as Km 114.5 in the expectation that one day it will be linked up with other sections already kilometre-posted in both Jaén and Albacete. At 131.5 there is a series of original railway kilometre posts with the initials B-U (Baeza-Utiel), which refer to the old Baeza-Utiel railway that officially started (Km 0) in Linares.
Acceses:
Westernmost end (Km 0): km 217 of the N-322 road.
Tunnel at km 122: at the exit of the third tunnel there is a dirt track from km 2.2 of the Puente de Génave road (JV-6301).
Puente de Génave Station (km 125): access to the station from where the road to La Puerta de Segura (JV-7001) crosses over the N-322 road (Km 231).
Genáve station (Km 133.5): access to Genáve Station from km 1.5 of the road to Génave (JV-7053).
Villarrodrigo Station (km 140): access to the station from the asphalted track (Camino de la Estación) which links km 245 of the N-322 road with Villarrodrigo (7 km from the greenway).
How to get there:
Public transport. Bus.
Conections:
Arroyo del Ojanco: to Jaén 120 km and to Bailén 103 km.
The Segura Nature Trail-Greenway, promoted by the Provincial Council of Jaén and developed by the Ministry for Agriculture and Food in 2015, is a route dominated by nature and natural landscapes. Users should be warned that towns and villages, and their shops and bars where refreshments are to be had, are all some distance away from the greenway.
The greenway starts at the km 217 marker on the main Bailén-Albacete road (N-322), two kilometres away from Arroyo del Ojanco and one kilometre away from its abandoned station.
On the left-hand side of the road (going towards Albacete) there is no proper parking area, but there is enough space to park several vehicles. Panels and signs indicate the starting point of the trail.
The first kilometre drops down towards the viaduct over the river Guadalimar, a monumental concrete-built structure with a 175 m long bridge deck supported by 5 broad arches. The lofty viaduct provides an excellent view point from which to see the river’s riparian woodland. The Guadalimar is also the lowest point on the route; from now on it will be an easy but steady climb.
Once over the Guadalimar, the old railway line has been
taken over by the access to a biogas plant for a 1.5 km long stretch. The alternative route is a parallel track which requires climbing and descending a number of steepish slopes to negotiate some overpasses.
When the asphalt section veers off at km 118, the greenway runs along the track bed of the old railway line once more. The Segura Greenway once again enjoys the advantages of the original route and embarks on a long journey through a landscape of hills and ridges, dominated by row upon row of olive trees alternating with empty fields in which broom abounds and some small isolated pine groves flourish. In the distance, on either side of the river, olive trees grow up high hillsides until they are overwhelmed by the dense pine forests that crown the heights.
In such a rugged terrain, trains are able to run on long straight lines thanks to the railway’s most characteristic civil works. The route is a succession of embankments raised above watercourses, cuttings driven through hills, and cut-and-cover tunnels where the earth walls of cuttings are too soft to be stable.
After km 122 we begin to see more clearly how a deep cleft has opened up in the mountain range on the southern horizon to our right. The river Guadalimar has cut its way through the Sierra Segura mountains and the village of La Puerta de Segura has taken up a strategic position there. At the bottom of the cleft, perched on a hill, we can see the castle of Segura de la Sierra with the village clinging to the mountainside, overlooking the Sierras de Cazorla, Segura y Las Villas Natural Park.
In sight of the village of La Agracea (km 124.5) we reach another landmark on the trail. On one side there is a firing range whose bar offers the only chance for refreshments in the immediate vicinity of the greenway.
Km. 125
At km 125 the original route of the Baeza-Utiel railway has been cut by the N-322 road. Our gravel path comes to a halt at the JV-7001 road perpendicular to the main road. With the old railway route completely obliterated at this point, our only option is to share with other vehicles the relatively traffic-free road to our right in order to cross over the N-322 in the direction of La Puerta de Segura (6 km from the greenway). On the other side of this diversion, which is perfectly signposted, we come across an old road roller displayed on top of a peculiar pedestal; the remains of an old bridge that used to carry a rural road over the railway line.
Some 200 metres further on (to our left) there is a gravel track which drops down to reunite us with the original railway route and allows vehicles to reach the car park outside the first station along the greenway.
The old Puente de Génave station (km 125.3) follows the same architectural style as all the other stations on our route. There is a main passenger building and a goods warehouse, each with its own platforms. However, at this station there is also a livestock loading facility which we will not be seeing at the other stations, beside which a rest area has been set up.
We should mention that there is now a new 5 km cycle path between Puente de Génave and La Puerta de Segura; a good excuse to make use of this safe route to visit the beautiful village and enter into the heart of the natural park.
After the station the water courses of the Gavilán and Del Moral streams complicate the route of the old railway, which is forced by deep gullies and steep slopes into making a pronounced curve. This wild terrain is populated by pine trees, which first reach the greenway in a succession of gullies that the greenway crosses on high embankments, before finally dominating the entire landscape. Pine trees embellish the route between the village of Bonache (km 126.7) a little after crossing the boundary of the natural park, and the cutting at km 129. This section contains a rest area (km 128.2), an idyllic place for taking a break, where the greenery and the shade from the pine trees form a natural oasis.
In our journey through the Sierras de Cazorla, Segura y Las Villas Natural Park we return to the dominant landscape of olive trees interspersed with empty fields. The vegetation has changed, but a plethora of watercourses continue to interfere with the route of the old railway. From now on the Segura Greenway passes through a long cutting with high rocky sides which gradually curves to the left, before being carried aloft on two high embankments providing an excellent view of the deep ravine. Finally it is forced underground, into the Génave Tunnel (km 132), the longest on our route. Its straight bore, 277 m long, is in a perfect state of repair and lighted.
Km. 133,5
A long straight section between empty fields take us to Genáve station (km 133.5), where there is a rest area, a car park, and access from the road to Génave (JV-7053).
After Genáve station the terrain becomes hilly once more. The old railway line once again runs in long straight lines between olive trees interspersed with empty fields; the same setting but different views. On the left, northern, side the Sierra Morena mountain range begins to subside and the views become more panoramic. You can see almost as far as the limits of the province of Jaén and even catch a glimpse of Campos de Montiel in the neighbouring province of Ciudad Real.
Km. 137
Our passage through the natural park comes to an end at an overpass, with the Cortijo de Santa María off to one side. The ruined houses and the wildness of the setting conveys a sensation of great desolation. After these ruined houses the landscape changes radically as the ubiquitous olive trees finally desert us. They continue to dominate the distant hillsides, but the greenway is now lined with fields of arable crops and empty fields where broom and holm oak thrive. For some hundred yards we pass through a small wood of holm oak.
Villarrodrigo station (Km 140) has a rest area and is accessible by road. After the station comes the final stage of our journey; a gentle 1.5 km descent between flat, cereal crop lands. The Segura Greenway comes to an end at the provincial boundary with Albacete (Km 141.5). But the journey can continue along the Sierra de Alcaraz Greenway for another 19.5 km or even up to the capital of Albacete although there is still an undercovered strech of 16 km beyond the station of Reolid and until reaching the village of Alcaraz.
The Segura Greenway forms part of the unfinished railway line that was meant to link the stations of Linares-Baeza (Jaén) and Utiel (Valencia). The idea was born in the 1920s as part of the big push that General Primo de Rivera’s dictatorship was giving to the railways, with the intention of turning the railway system of the time, of a decidedly radial nature, into a more cohesive network by building some transversal lines. This was known as the Guadalhorce Plan.
A triple paradox condemned this railway to never entering into operation: it was born too late, when road transport was already starting to divert passengers and goods away from the railways; a terrible civil war blighted practically every project in the country; and, finally, its tracks passed through sparsely habited areas that with every passing decade were becoming more depopulated.
During Franco’s rule the World Bank made the abandonment of all projects thought to be loss-making (including nearly all the Guadalhorce Plan lines) a condition for the granting of loans. Thus, in 1963 the plug was pulled on the lines that had been initiated 40 years earlier and were so close to completion, and on the much-needed trains that were to run on them.
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