The capital of Vizcaya, Bilbao, built on the river Nervión, was a hotbed of industrial and logistical activity from the mid-19th century. Iron mining, steelworks and the port combined to make one of the driving forces of the Spanish industrial revolution. Railways grew hand in hand with economic activity, and were amply deployed on either side of the river. One such railway was the one which connected the station of Lutxana, in the heart of Bilbao, with the town of Mungia, in the rural district of Uribe. Unlike other railways, this one served an area where there was neither mining nor any major factory. It was, therefore, very much a rural railway from the outset. It was run first by the company Ferrocarril de Luchana a Mungia and, after the Civil War, it was absorbed into the network run by Ferrocarriles y Transportes Suburbanos de Bilbao. It had an acceptable volume of traffic, due to its specialization in the transport of light goods and, in particular, passengers. But another means of transport, the airplane, had a lot to do with its eventual demise. The extension of the runways of Sondika airport in 1975 swallowed up a chunk of the railway line. Today alternatives would have been studied, but in those days it was very easy to shut down a minor rural line. Thus from that year on the trains on that line ended their journey at Sondika, and the rest of the route between meadows and woods was forgotten, until its recent revival as a Greenway.