This division of Renfe was previously a stand-alone company named FEVE (Ferrocarriles de Vía Estrecha, Spanish for "Narrow-Gauge Railways).

Following the creation of RENFE in 1941, to which the ownership of all Spanish broad-gauge railways were transferred to, EFE had in practice become the operator of a collection of exclusively narrow-gauge lines.

[3] The great majority of the narrow-gauge lines that were operated by FEVE before it disappeared were located along or near Spain's Atlantic Ocean and Bay of Biscay coastline, which stretches from Galicia in the northwest, through Asturias and Cantabria to the Basque Country (with a branch extending into Castile and León).

An exclusive tourist service operated by FEVE is a 650 km (400 mi)[7] long line, the Transcantábrico, which runs along the entire length of Spain's north coast, and has connected the cities of San Sebastián, Bilbao, Santander, Oviedo and Ferrol to Leon since 1982.

The main commuter area is Cercanías Asturias, where the dense five-line FEVE network was totally integrated with the RENFE lines and works effectively as a regional metro system.

FEVE's rails transported approximately 460 million tonnes [dubious – discuss] of goods each year, accounting for a large part of the company's business.