Msida – Birkirkara

Urban inundations

Msida was the first of the standard ‘intermediate’ stations out of Valletta, effectively halts with few facilities. These were designed with a basic stone building with a metal canopy sheltering a bench for waiting passengers, and a small office with a window for issuing tickets. They also incorporated a guard room for the staff attending to the chains at the level crossings each station was built beside.

Fragments along the highway

Despite official regulations discouraging the stopping of trains anywhere other than official stations, it was common for trains to pick up passengers elsewhere. Guard huts were the most likely of these locations, that at Port des Bombes being frequented by those who disliked Floriana’s underground station.

Guard hut No.6 was another of these stops, described as an “optional stoppage at the request of passengers at level crossing No.6 where there is no station but only the crossing keepers shelter”. It was close to the village of Santa Venera, then classed as part of Birkirkara. The village was expanding quickly by the end of the 19^th Century, and by 1900 more passengers were recorded alighting at level crossing No.6 than at the official stop at Msida less than half a mile away; That it was recognised in statistics gave the stop a degree of official sanction.