The railway was late in coming to Malta but when it did, it initiated urban sprawl that continues unabated. Mechanised rail transport had been firmly established in Europe since the 1820s but constructing a railway on such a small island did not make economic sense (some thought it was a joke) were it not for the density of population concentrated around the harbour area, the British garrison and a steady stream of short and long term visitors whose presence had increased with the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869.

Promoters were excited by the prospect of quick returns on investment given the potential number of travellers. There would be no goods traffic, given the short distances and the availability of cheap and efficient transport by cart.

Early man in Malta pioneered some of the very first transport systems – cart ruts or wagonways cut into the surface rock. Long after they had fallen into disuse, forgotten by most and only studied as mysterious historical artefacts, the rich travelled in their horse drawn carriages, others hired the caless or rode on horseback. The rest walked and walked, transport they euphemistically described as St Francis’s Cart – il-karru ta’ San Frangisk (Tommy Atkins’s Shank’s Pony), after the founder of the eponymous order of mendicant friars.

In the 1850s, imported horse-drawn Victorias, and omnibuses (locally called karrozzini and nemnebus) preceded the evolution in mass transport that took off with the railway, albeit years after most European cities where branch, narrow gauge lines, as distinct from long distance railways, were already running. Between the first proposals in 1870 and the inauguration in 1883, the industrial world was on the threshold of newer, revolutionary means of transport including electric trams and early motor cars.

The tunnel from Porta Reale to Floriana.

It is likely that if British shareholders had early knowledge of the peculiar nature of their proposed investment they would have baulked at the plan, and moved to some other place where work could start at once without hindrance.

Malta was a fortress colony whose defence requirements were continually monitored and administered by the commanding officer, Royal Engineers. Construction of the line had to be vetted and scrutinised. Would the works prejudice the defence of the island? Would they give the enemy an advantage in the event of an invasion? It was considerations such as these that determined whether to build an overhead line on trestles similar to contemporary monorails or a traditional surface line with cuttings, tunnels, embankments and bridges.

Sliema and St Julian’s were included in the future expansion of the railway

The problem was not so much the line in the countryside up to the terminus at Notabile (Mdina) but the starting point at Valletta and the exit of the fortifications at Floriana. A terminus at the Marina in Grand Harbour would capture passenger traffic arriving by sea. However, that would not serve the primary market, the local commuter, so the terminus was placed at Porta Reale. There, the Royal Engineers decreed that the platforms had to be underground and the passage through the fortifications to be almost entirely in tunnel.

Added to the prescriptive role of the Royal Engineers were several conditions imposed by the government in return for the award of the concession and the declaration of works deemed to be of public utility, with the right of purchase and expropriation of land on which the line would be built.

The embankment near San Anton Palace.

Plan of Valletta Station opposite the Royal Opera House. A circular staircase led to the platform below.

The first concessionaires were well acquainted with Malta. Charles Andrews, a civil engineer with experience in railways and other public works, had been engaged by the Admiralty on the construction of the first graving dock in French Creek, the Somerset or No.3 Dock, that was completed in 1871. Andrews carried out a survey of the proposed line in 1873 and estimated it would cost £25,000 to complete. His partner Edward Rosenbusch pioneered the telegraph on the islands.

In 1876 Rosenbusch estimated potential revenue for the railway from surveys of traffic carried out between Valletta and Notabile. In 1883, the year the railway was inaugurated, Rosenbusch, in his capacity as representative of the Eastern Electric Light and Power Company, demonstrated electrical apparatus for domestic use in his home at 27, Merchants Street, Valletta.

In the event, Andrews and Rosenbusch backed out of their project, which they had marketed as The Malta Steam Tramway Company. The project was then taken up by General Works Co., of London, operating as The Malta Railway Co. The name was later changed to Valletta-Notabile Railway Co.

After the company got bogged down in litigation with its Maltese contractors in the local courts, a new concessionaire took over in June 1879, similarly proposing to operate as The Malta Railway Co., with an issued capital of £60,000.

The cutting beyond Birkirkara Station.

Rosenbusch, writing in The Malta Times and United Service Gazette of December 16, 1880, commented that he and Andrews would have built the railway for less than half that sum and the project would have yielded a fair dividend, something he now doubted. In his view, it was a blessing that Maltese investors had been precluded from purchasing shares.

The new company proceeded with the works in spite of ongoing litigation. Two civil engineers, Gervase Elwes and George Wells Owen had taken over from Andrews. In 1879 Elwes published a report on the railway that included a map of the route.

In April 1882, H. J Davison was commissioned to photograph the construction of the railway.

Sliema and St Julian’s, burgeoning suburbs of Valletta, were included in the future expansion of the railway. These plans were ambitious enough, albeit, at the time, unrealistic and undoable. From Notabile to Marfa, where a primitive ferry connected with Gozo, the line would have had to be bridged or tunnelled at great expense over a series of natural faults that characterise the topography of northern Malta.

The line would have been easier to expand south of Notabile where the land undulates gently towards Marsaxlokk. In both instances, but especially in the north, there was hardly any potential travelling public to lure to the railway. Most of the villagers lived in splendid isolation from the harbour conurbation. This would explain why the government at first decided to open up the countryside as far as Notabile. While the American saying ‘the railway is the mother of all villages’ also held true for Malta, urban development beyond Birkirkara was at first slow to take off when the railway was inaugurated.

Some farmers and landowners obstructed the works

On the other hand, Sliema and St Julian’s were existing, growing commuter towns. Linking them with a line from Valletta would have been far cheaper and shorter than the route to Notabile. However, the steam harbour ferries got there first in 1882. They were cheap and well patronised, despite the unhelpful climb to the centre of Valletta after landing at Marsamxett. The failure (it could have been official policy or strong political lobbying by the ferry operators) to link Sliema by rail would haunt the railway and, subsequently, the tramway for years to come.

Article 1 of Ordinance No.11 of 1881 authorised the company to carry out a survey, levelling and excavation work between Valletta and Notabile. Most of the work was completed by the summer of 1882. Purchase of land from landowners where the line was going to pass proved to be costly, time consuming and generally frustrating.

In Malta land is generally parcelled among several heirs after the death of the owner. The bill for land purchases from private owners exceeded £5,000. Construction and litigation raised this to some £77,000 or just under £10,000 per mile of line. When the railway passed under government ownership, it was said that the company had actually spent £90,000.

For the first time central Malta was divided by a railway line. Fields were partitioned and ancient thoroughfares crossed in several places. Some farmers and landowners obstructed the works and denied access to the land on which the line was going to be built. Earlier in the year photographer H.J. Davison of La Valletta Studio, 57, Strada Reale, was commissioned to take photographs of the works.

Davison later offered for sale six plates to the public. They probably constitute the only existing record of the actual construction of the railway. The resident engineer, George John Burke and the company agent, Frank. A.B. Geneste, can be seen in all the photographs. Geneste took over from Burke in October 1882 and was retained as general manager.

The Davison plates were clearly intended for viewing by the directors and shareholders in London who were fretting at the delays in getting the enterprise going by January 1, 1883.

While the company awaited the arrival of the first two engines and several carriages, experiments were carried out with telephones for communication between stations, this method having been preferred to the telegraph. Ballast wagons were used to mime trains leaving stations and announce their arrival at the next stop. Telegraph poles were already installed along the entire line so it was just a matter of replacing the wires.

To be concluded.