In a new twist in the Algarve railway crossing controversy a Faro farmer has been annexed by state railway company Refer which has dug ditches either side of the railway line and piled up earth to prevent him using an established crossing.
The farm and nearby dwellings used the road that existed before the railway was built but Refer says that farmer Pedro Ferreira must pay for the privilege of crossing its line.
An in depth report by Sul Informaçao published today states that the Passagem de Nível dos Salgados has proved to be a ditch too far for the farmer whose 164 hectares, cattle and six houses now are cut off.
The railway company says the farmer needs to have a license for which he must pay. The farmer has refused as his rights predate those of the railway company.
This dispute has been going on for years but now that Refer has been busy closing various crossings along the Olhão to Vila Real de Santo António stretch of line, Ferreira has run out of time and now, options.
The 'Olhao Livre' Facebook and blog site has reported extensively on the Olhão pedestrian crossing and the Faro farmer’s situation regarding his existing righst to cross the track and is highly critical of the management style adopted by Refer which appears to lack even basic negotiation skills.
Olhão’s mayor travelled last Friday to Lisbon to meet Refer representatives in an attempt to find a solution to the crossing in the city which currently divides the population. António Pina returned empty handed as a decision to ‘work on an alternative’ means but one thing, alterations to the underpass that pensioners and the disabled find impossible to use with safety and confidence.
The fact that the council had known about these plans for years and had done nothing to counter Refer’s intent did not help his negotiating position.
The annexed farmer already has had to call the police following the first attempt by Refer’s contractors to close the crossing.
Pedro Ferreira is the managing partner of Casa Agrícola Ferreira and said the GNR "said Refer could not close the crossing because there is no viable alternative."
REFER responded by digging a ditch either side of the railway track and removing wooden sleepers specifically so as to stop vehicles using the crossing.
Their actions nearly led to disaster with Pedro Ferreira stuck in the middle of the railroad as he tried to cross the track not having spotted that the sleepers that levelled the crossing had been removed, "Fortunately, I was in a jeep and with four-wheel drive and got back off. But if it had been a normal vehicle, I would not have been able to move it.”
Refer says that the work performed in its name was aimed at “safeguarding the security issues by creating a physical impediment to the crossing at the site, because the crossing is considered extinct.”
Pedro Ferreira commented to Sul Informaçao, "I get food trucks here every fortnight, sometimes once a week. Also often I am sending cattle trucks to Spain and Portugal” all of which must somehow get to the farm.
Refer’s methods are similar to those seen recently at the well used and accident free pedestrian crossing in Olhão which has promoted protest and bouts of vandalism from angered locals who say that the adjacent and steep underpass is not a suitable or safe alternative.
For Ferreira there is another nearby crossing and the negotiation is between him, his neighbour and the railway company over who will pay for expensive signalling equipment at one of the crossings, enabling the second to be closed.
Refer has been sending out press releases recently stating it has invested €35 million in the Olhão to Vila Real de Santo António track, yet it wants individuals to pay for safety equipment on tracks that predate its own. Safety or money - the Refer policy is the latter dressed up as the first.
The farm and access road already was in use in 1840. When the railway line was built the company left a crossing which for many years had no safety barrier.
The railway line headed south from Beja and reached Faro in 1904 and later that year to Olhão. The Linha do Algarve track reached Luz de Tavira in 1905 and Vila Real de Santo António in 1906 all of which is later than the farm records which go back beyond 1840.
More recently, gates triggered by remote control had been installed but it is not only the farm and associated vehicles that uses the crossing, "engineers working in the Natural Park, researchers and students from the University and tourists who want to go bird watching" all use the crossing. Anyway, the crossing now has been renderer impassible by Refer which has a curious habit of 'making things safe' by making them more dangerous.
Equipped with the 1840 argument and others over his access rights, Pedro Ferreira now is planning to apply for an injunction to get court approval for Refer to leave things as they were, unless the state railway company see sense in the meantime and finds a way to enable Ferreira to continue his work as a farmer.
See Sul Informaçao's report in Portuguese at:
