Illa opposes closing the Barcelona-Madrid high-speed rail line during renovation works

BarcelonaPresident Salvador Illa is committed to maintaining circulation on the Madrid-Barcelona high-speed rail line during renovation work. After minister Óscar Puente opened the door to closing the line during the work, following the tragic high-speed rail accident in Urda, the head of the Government said in an interview with Cadena SER that he is "in favor" of maintaining the service.

For Illa, the renovation must be carried out with "maximum safety" criteria and, if this is guaranteed, the work must be done "affecting the service as little as possible." "It is the preferable and desirable outcome for everyone," he said. In his view, in fact, the Minister of Transport simply "opened a reflection" on how things are handled in "other places." In Germany, for example, traffic is halted on high-speed lines that are under construction.

In his Friday appearance, to provide further explanations regarding the Toledo accident, Puente admitted that they are considering stopping AVE circulation at points where work is being carried out, a decision that before the tragedy had been completely ruled out. This would affect circulation between Barcelona and Madrid and, specifically, the section between Madrid and Calatayud. "I won't hide from you that it is one of the things [closing the line] that we are considering [from the Spanish government]," he said.

The minister said that this approach is not taken for a question of safety, but for "other reasons": the lack of confidence of the population towards the high-speed train (AVE) or the level of punctuality, which precisely due to the remodeling tasks is affected. But he also evidenced that it is not a safe decision: "I do not know if it is the most prudent option," he said, and recalled that "Spain, if it is not imperiously necessary, always opts to maintain the [train] service".

Waiting to see how the idea evolves, which has the opposition of Illa, the president of the Generalitat has admitted the "very complicated situation" that Óscar Puente is going through. Faced with the calls for his resignation from practically the entire parliamentary spectrum, however, the leader of the PSC has defended that the minister "must do what he is doing". Thus, he has claimed that he is "giving explanations" for last week's deadly accident –which has caused at least 69 deaths– and "facing the responsibilities" that derive from it.