A Look Back - Cyprus's Lost Railway

No trains run in Cyprus today; the only forms ofmountain to towns and cities all over Cyprus. It carried
transport are now via road, sea or by air: buses, taxis,freight, ore and minerals on behalf of the Cyprus Mines
boats and cruise vessels. But a long time ago thereCorporation. Some stations also operated as
was another form of transport that was spreadtelephone centres, telegram offices and postal offices
across all of Cyprus: the magnificent triumph ofwhich meant that some of the railway stations acted
engineering that was the Cyprus Government Railwayas a place where you could exchange goods.
(CGR).The CGR closed down because of financial reasons,
The CGR was a 2ft 6in-gauge line with a total of 78the line never made a profit and by 1932 the western
miles, The construction of the line's first 37 miles beganend of line was shortened by three stops. While from
in April 1904 it was from Famagusta to Nicosia and1948 Nicosia was the final western stop which meant
opened in October the following year, the journey fromten more stations were closed. This also wasn't helped
Famagusta to Nicosia took about two hours. Inby the new 6 ton diesel lorries which appear which the
December 1907 the line was extended to MorphouCGR couldn't compete against. As the railway system,
which was 27 miles west of Nicosia. Eight years laterengine and tracks were over 40 years old and it
in June it was extended by 14 miles to Evrykhou, andwasn't easy to upgrade each compared to their road
thus the main line was completed.bound equivalents.
It ran for almost 50 years from October 1905 toThe last train to ever run left was the engine no.1
December 1951, with a total of 39 stations, the mostwhich left from Nicosia station at 14:57 on the 31st
notable at Famagusta, Prastio Mesaoria, Angastina,December 1951 and arrived at Famagusta at 16:38.
Trachoni, Nicosia, Kokkinotrimithia, Morphou, Kalo ChorioWhen it finished its journey it was lifted to its final
and Evrychou. The names were written in threeresting place by army engineers from Dhekelia by a
languages English, Greek, and Turkish. The average20 ton crane. The dismantlement after the final run
speed of the trains ranged from 20 to 30 mph andlasted for over two years and 10 locomotives, the
two trains would leave per day.tracks and other various items were sold to the
The CGR trains were used in various ways by bothcompany Meyer Newman & Co, amounting up to
authorities and the local population. It was used as a£65,626. The Locomotive 1 train is still in its resting
freight transfer system which served from the port ofplace in Polat PaÅYa Boulevard in Famagusta and is
Famagusta. It transferred timber from the Troodosplaced as a memorial to the CGR.