Spain and the system error

Minister Puente invited us yesterday to add two plus two without saying four: "The decision is made for the train that impacts the Iryo [stopped] to resume its journey normally. It is inexplicable [...]. It is an erroneous decision [...]. It is truly implausible". So, the fault was not with the system, but with a person. Except for naming them, he pointed them out clearly.

We will not doubt that it happened that way. But one accident is a misfortune. Two accidents with 114 deaths are not just two misfortunes. They are the system. The system to which both the PSOE and the PP have contributed so much.

Spain is the second country in the world with the most high-speed rail kilometers (about 4,100), only behind China. Spain is the first country in Europe with the most kilometers of motorways and highways (about 15,800), far above Germany, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom.

To build high-speed rail, investment in all of Spain's commuter rail networks was neglected. And as for the state and service provided by motorways and highways, users of the AP-7 and the A-2 can speak to that. Spanish road infrastructures are victims of an electoralist inaugural craze. And of an attack of self-importance: where are the prestige and modernity that Spain sought to buy itself with high-speed rail today, after this black 2026? And one does not need to reach those two horrible accidents: the high-speed service has not been as reliable as it was at the beginning for years. They build colossal stations, tunnels, and investments, but then they cannot maintain them.

We sympathize with the families of the victims, but in Catalonia, we have known for years that the trains do not work. And once again, what starts by happening here, ends up happening there.