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Home / 2021 / Trip to Spain - November 2021 / PTG Railtour day 4 - Zaragoza to Bilbao 12

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Thursday 11/11/2021 Zaragoza to Bilbao via Castejón de Ebro and Miranda de Ebro; we took the non-passenger curve avoiding Bilbao Abando to cover the suburban branch to Santurtzi before heading directly into Bilbao Abando. Unfortunately due to a combination of an error somewhere and a bit of late running, we were signalled in the wrong platform at Bilbao Abando, one that we had been specifically been refused access to due to reduced clearances (the suburban trains have a different gauging profile from main line stock); this caused at least one of the carriages to scrape along the platform edge. Someone was taking a video from the platform and this has appeared on the internet at various times, usually with incorrect reasons for it happening. After checking into our hotel we covered the Euskotren branch to Bermeo, then had some dinner in the hotel restaurant. After that I did the short Metro route to Basauri.
Route: Zaragoza-Delicias (PTG Special, ALSA DL 2150, former RENFE 321050 top-n-tail ALSA DL 1603, former RENFE 316003; train 37567) 06:50 - Castejón de Ebro 07:54/08:09 - Alfaro 08:15/08:20 - Haro 09:54/10:09 - Miranda de Ebro 10:36/11:52 - Orduna 12:50/13:05 - Bilbao A/L - Santurtzi (rev) 14:11/14:41 - Bilbao Abando 15:06; check into hotel; Zazpikaleak 16:43 (Euskotren EMU 973, line E4) - Bermeo 18:03; 18:18 (Euskotren EMU 973, line E4) - Zazpikaleak 19:38; evening meal in hotel; Abando 21:48 (Metro Line 1) - Basauri 21:59; 22:03 (Metro Line 1) - Zazpikaleak 22:15. Overnight NYX Hotel, a short walk from Abando station.