Valletta Remains – The Malta Railway

VALLETTA

Seen by thousands, noticed by few

Valletta’s terminus station is a tale of two halves. The landmark building built opposite the Royal Opera House survived the Blitz, but succumbed to urban renewal in the late 1960s. After decades as Freedom square, the site was again redeveloped by architect Renzo Piano for the new Maltese Parliament building.

Lining up a before-and-after view of the site reveals the relationship of the new building with the long-lost Victorian station, the angle and location of St Jame’s Caviller standing immovable between the views.

Whatever people’s feelings about the new building and the city gateway project, it has brought about significant restoration of some of the stations other features. The underground portions of the station survive, though it’s difficult to tell in what condition.

The Yellow garage that occupied the tunnel for years was moved out and the space stripped back to its original form revealing a lot of previously obscured details.

A new glazed screen was installed at the station mouth in about 2018, not part of Renzo Piano’s design that maintained a more open appearance, and the whole is used for Committee Room, Parliamentary records Archive and a Reference Library.

Of the ramps that led to the station platform, one truncated section survives with new stairs dug down to access it and new steps into the ditch.

Malta’s Parliament building sits directly over the site of the original railway station as seen in the 1900s view. St James Caviller in the background remains the only reference point for this then-and-now comparison.

The railway viaduct was restored as part of the Maltese Parliament project. This, the south side, is best preserved, with the original refuges at track level apparent. The glass screen wall now blocks the entrance into Valletta’s underground station.

After 1892, the approach to the platforms from the street was by means of ramped tunnels. This is the surviving lower section of the second of these looking towards the city ditch

Looking back up the ramp with steps and cuts added recently. The door on the right was the access directly to the station platform for passengers, and the location of a gate.

The steps on the left replace an earth ramp into the ditch. The width of the station mouth is palpable here. The station platform was located along this northern edge of the tunnel.

A more considered restoration has been made of the stone viaduct spanning the main ditch. Although this removed much of the post-railway ramps and revealed the 1892 structure, it stripped out the historic platform extension supported on piers on the north side of the bridge. At least the best of the fabric has been renovated.

The south side of the bridge is best preserved, including the projecting refuge areas intended to give some protection to railway employees as trains passed.

Also protected is the archaeological evidence in the east end of the bridge – the buttresses, beam sockets and stonework scars that helps unravel the phasing of a lost timber section incorporated for defensive purposes before becoming obsolete.

Now part of a public promenade, the ground levels of the ditch have incrementally risen several times. The new pedestrian concourse allows the railway enthusiast the opportunity to explore the bridge closely.

The Floriana tunnel mouth is infilled with a lightweight steel and timber structure. To the north side of it is the open arch of a former reservoir added to service locomotives by means of a gravity feed.

Two key changes should be observed between this 1883 view and today’s. Firstly, the change from timber to stone bridge structure was undertaken in 1892. Secondly, the infilling of the city ditch has robbed the structure of some of its grandeur.

The east end of the stone viaduct incorporates a smaller arch, added later, and stone buttresses below it.

The stone buttresses were designed to withhold the thrust of the bridge before a sacrificial timber section was finally replaced.

Entering Floriana tunnel at the western end of the bridge. Note the opening above which accessed a water reservoir.

Beneath it, scars survive to tell the history of the platform extension that once projected along one whole side of the bridge. Perhaps this was an unsightly addition, but it’s sad that all elements of the station’s evolution weren’t held in the same regard.

Sadly, access onto the bridge itself is controlled through Parliament so experiencing the station complex from its intended level is impossible. We can at least look down on the viaduct from the main entrance to the city and imagine the trains and passengers busily coming and going below us.

Thousands look down from the bridge into Valletta every day, but how many know that beneath them the railway once ran.

The same view before 1920 showing the later platform extension along the bridge edge, recently removed to reveal the original structure.

Tunnel traces

Used still for services, the Floriana tunnel remains largely complete despite some awkward incisions made into it by modern structures and foundations. It is not publicly accessible outside of special permissions being sought. Happily, it’s route can still be traced at the surface.

The majority of the original ventilation shafts survive, recognisable today by the robust iron grilles now in place at pavement level. These can be used to track the route intermittently through Biscuttini gardens and across Great Siege Road, before becoming a more reliable rhythm commences along the norther edge of the granaries in front of St Publius church.

These grilles can be seen spaced out through Floriana. They protect the shafts used originally to excavate the railway tunnel.

Looking down through the grille the circular shafts are now blocked, but once provided ventilation when the tunnel was in use.

Although mostly blocked before they reach the tunnel, you can still look down through some of these grilles and see the original circular shafts dug down into the bedrock; Through these same shafts the excavated spoil was laboriously hauled back to the surface during construction.

The alignment then swings northward and grilles can be located in the Maglio Gardens before the site of Floriana station is reached.

Next station

Floriana to Hamrun