26/11/2004 00:00
TW
0
Staff reporter THE Association of Friends of the Soller Train are demanding that the current operating concession be extended past 2011. Association chairman Pedro Florit said yesterday that the electric train, Majorca's most popular tourist attraction is a “moving museum and should be declared part of the Balearics' natural heritage and therefore protected for life.” The Soller train is only one of its kind in Spain, in fact, the only others still operating in the world are in Austria and India, this is why Florit and the association have launched a fresh attempt to try and preserve the railway.


He said that apart from the millions of tourists who travel on the train up to Soller, the railway also attracts groups of railway enthusiasts from all over Europe, in particular Austria and Germany, ever year.

The Soller Railway Company, which currently operates the railway which started in 1927, has the concession until 2011, but the association maintain that the Balearic government should extend the deadline in order to secure its future. “If it falls in to the hands of the government, it will become just another train.” he said.