Chaos and crowds at Sants due to widespread delays on high-speed trains

BarcelonaThe high-speed rail line between Barcelona and Madrid continues to experience widespread delays this Tuesday following the fire that affected a train in Ricla, Aragon, this Sunday afternoon. Throughout the morning, the complications have caused overcrowding and long queues at Sants station in Barcelona, with situations that some users have described as "chaos".

Dozens of people have crowded into the station lobby, outside the high-speed train access points, because only users with an assigned track could access the waiting area to go down to the platforms. Some trains departing from Barcelona have recorded delays of more than two hours.

One user, Samantha Simon, assured the ACN that her train was supposed to leave at 8:30 a.m., but that it was finally postponed until 11 a.m. As she explained, the most "intense" overcrowding occurred in the station lobbies around 8:30 a.m.

David Garcia, who was supposed to travel to Zaragoza at 7:50 a.m. on an Iryo train for work reasons, received a message from the operator early in the morning warning him that the trip had been delayed by two hours. Because of this, he went to Sants later than planned to avoid having to wait in the lobby. For him, the delay means "the loss of two effective hours of work and, surely, the delay of a meeting" that he has in Burgos, where he will arrive later by rental car from Zaragoza.

Reorganization of traffic

The blockade began on Monday afternoon, coinciding with the return operation from the Pilar long weekend. High-speed rail between Barcelona and Madrid was cut off for practically the entire afternoon, from four o'clock until eight in the evening, due to a fire on a train in Aragon. At night, the line began operating again, but the resumption was slow and traffic had to be routed through a single track between the stations of Ricla and Plasencia de Jalón, in Aragon.

This Tuesday morning, traffic has been maintained on a single track, with a temporary speed limit of 80 km/h between Ricla and Plasencia de Jalón, and work has continued to remove the material affected by the fire and to repair the infrastructure. As a consequence of these restrictions, the line's capacity has been reduced, which is causing "disruptions" to traffic.

Renfe has reorganized the circulation of several services using double-composition trains, grouping certain services together and adjusting their departure times. This operation will continue throughout the day for several of the scheduled services.