On October 18, 19, and 20, ASIHF held its 7th Congress at the UIMP’s Valencia campus, with institutional support from the Valencian Regional Government and the Menéndez Pelayo International University (UIMP). The event was opened by María José Salvador Rubert, Regional Minister of Housing, Public Works, and Territorial Planning for the Valencian government

Sixty papers were presented, grouped into eight sessions and prepared by several dozen conference participants from Spanish universities—Alicante, Barcelona, Deusto, Granada, Complutense University of Madrid, Málaga, León, UNED, UPV/EHU, UPV, and Valladolid—as well as European universities—France, Italy, and Portugal—and universities in the Americas —Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico—and other public and private institutions, both Spanish and foreign. Topics as diverse as rail corridors, regional and autonomous community railways, railways during the Second Republic and the Civil War, the relationship between railways, engineers, and cities, the role of railways in socialist thought, and historical heritage were addressed. In fact, the conference participants took a tour of the Valencia train station, which is celebrating its centennial this year.

Following a lecture by Gabriel Tortella on the debates surrounding the origins of the Spanish railway system, Javier Vidal Olivares, president of the Scientific Committee, closed the Congress. The Association’s assembly unanimously approved the proposal submitted by Ana Cardoso de Matos to hold the 8th Congress at the National Railway Museum of Portugal (Entroncamento), as well as a new Governing Council, thereby bringing the founding period to a close.