The city of Alcoy has a long industrial tradition. Its location inland, in a very rugged area, was a major disadvantage for the export of its products. Since 1909, the city had a railway connection to the national rail network towards Valencia via Xátiva, owned by the Compañía del Norte. In 1893, this was preceded by a narrow-gauge line with British capital, which connected to the port of Gandía.
However, Alcoy wanted a broad-gauge line with a greater capacity, which would connect the city to the port of Alicante, which was more important than the modest Grao de Gandía. In addition, the broad-gauge line that ended in Alcoy would be dissolved, so that it would continue to the south and create a shorter regional north-south route than the existing route with the large detour that the railway made via La Encina.
Thus, under the auspices of the Guadalhorce Railway Plan, in the midst of the dictatorship of General Primo de Rivera, a series of dizzying works were launched that succeeded in building 66 km of railway infrastructure. The route would be winding and pass through mountain ranges, passing through Ibi and Castalla, and in Agost it would connect with the line from Madrid to Alicante, already very close to the capital and its port.
All the technical means of the time were used: spectacular viaducts, very long tunnels and enormous excavations were carried out. When the Civil War broke out, only the stations remained to be built. The general crisis of the war and the post-war period prevented the railway from being built and put into service. As a result, the railway was definitively forgotten in the mountains of Alicante.