Railway in Crete About Sfakia and Crete's rich history. Ancient maps, monuments, paintings, archaeological finds, old photos, archives, and history books and articles.

[Erno]

Railway in Crete - 17 August, 2016

From 1922 to 1937, there was a working industrial railway, which connected the Koules in Heraklion to Xiropotamos, for the construction of the harbor.

A study from the year 2000 investigated the feasibility for two tram lines in Heraklion. The first line would link the Stadium to the airport, and the second the center of Heraklion and Knossos. No approval has yet been given for this proposal.

In the summer of 2007, at the Congress of Cretan emigrants, held in Heraklion, two qualified engineers, George Nathenas (from Gonies, Malevizi Province) and Vassilis Economopoulos, recommended the development of a railway line in Crete, linking Chania, Rethymnon and Heraklion, with a total journey time of 50 minutes (30 minutes between Heraklion and Rethymnon, 20 minutes from Chania to Rethymnon) and with provision for extensions to Kissamos, Kastelli Pediados (for the planned new airport), and Aghios Nikolaos. No plans exist for implementing this idea.

From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heraklion#Railway

[sethuk]

Hi Erno
That explains the rusty old tank engine slowly rotting away beside Heraklion harbour (unless some local railway enthusiasts have restored it). I have a picture of it but don't know how to paste it here!
Cheers
Seth

Here it is:

[Yuriy]

04.10.2007

[sethuk]

That's my boy!
Seth

[thebigclunk48]

The trellis for my grapes at my old house in Tsikalaria, Chania is made from old pieces of railway line - some is similar size to this and some is smaller - a mine tramway perhaps