Railway chaos: three breakdowns and 400 evacuated in Sants

BarcelonaThe week Horribilis of Adif and Renfe has not yet finished. After Five consecutive days of chaos in rail transport, this Saturday two new breakdowns have collapsed the network again, in this case the high-speed one. Early in the morning, another problem in a catenary, now at Sants station, has forced a fast train from the Ouigo company to stop in the middle of the exit tunnel from Sants. In turn, the incident has paralyzed all high-speed train traffic and this has also affected users of Renfe AVE and those of the Italian company Iryo.

The events occurred early in the morning, at the start of the service. Inside the directly affected convoy were 403 passengers who were heading towards Madrid and who, after an hour and a half locked in the train, were finally evacuated. With only the emergency lights on, the passengers had to walk 50 meters along the tracks and were able to be evacuated through an emergency exit at the Mercat de Sants.

To ensure the safety of people evacuated on foot, Adif has cut off the power to all the tracks. At 8.45 am, technicians had already restored part of the voltage to the overhead lines, which has allowed the tracks to be partially reopened and traffic to resume, albeit very slowly. Shortly afterwards, at 9.15 am, the incident was completely resolved and the trains were back to running normally, albeit with accumulated delays of more than an hour on average.

The platforms and the station "have become chaos", according to some eyewitnesses at the ARA. "The information broadcast over the loudspeaker could barely be heard," said one witness. "They said there was a problem on the tracks and that high-speed trains were being suspended, but at the same time some were boarding," he added. At the same time, the station hall began to fill up with passengers who could not get on their trains. The large number of people who gathered there forced the reinforcement of security at the entrances with four riot police who were stationed next to the access controls to the high-speed tracks.

On the part of Renfe, the disruptions prevented an AVE train from leaving the station in Granada and a Euromed train bound for Figueres (the 6.30 and 6.50 a.m. trains). The passengers were relocated to other trains.

The image of passengers leaving on foot through the Sants tunnel and walking along the tracks to return to the station is very reminiscent of that of this same Friday when a power cut left a commuter train to Bellvitge without power. Passengers travelling there also had to make the remaining journey to the station. on foot, escorted by the Firefighters and the Mossos d'Esquadra. A dangerous operation due to the risk of electrocution that it entails and that Renfe had already warned that it should never be carried out without the presence of security forces in the area.

Once the morning breakdown had been resolved, in the early afternoon the network was surprised by another incident that once again cut off the circulation of high-speed trains, this time between Sants and the Mollet del Vallès fork, in the direction of Girona. The problem, as explained by Civil Protection, was the failure of a repair wagon. This new incident affected two other trains, which were also stopped. And, to finish off the disastrous Saturday, in the afternoon a third incident, this time in the infrastructure ofCatalonia commuter trains, has caused delays of 25 minutes on average on all lines that pass through the city of Barcelona, ​​​​specifically the R1, the R2, the R3 and the R4.

The Government requests an emergency meeting

The regional minister for Territory of the Catalan Government, Silvia Paneque, has responded to this new problem in the railway network and has requested an "urgent" meeting for tomorrow, Sunday, with the Ministry of Transport and Adif to "seek immediate solutions" to all the incidents that have occurred in the Catalan network in recent days. Paneque regretted the effects on passengers and expressed confidence that the agreed investments "will allow us to move towards a reliable system with the appropriate infrastructure."

"We need answers and obvious improvements from Monday," said the minister from Palamós, during the inauguration of a new bus station. Paneque also attacked the previous Catalan governments and recalled that the Catalan Government "has had responsibilities over the service since 2010."

From the opposition, Junts has denounced the "permanent chaos" in the railway network and has attributed it to the "premeditated disinvestment" of the State. "Will President Salvador Illa continue to defend the PSOE or will he start to defend the Catalans?" asked the president of the parliamentary group, Albert Batet. From ERC, Oriol Junqueras has stressed that the transfer of Cercanías is "a priority for the country" because it is the only way to improve the service: "Catalonia cannot wait any longer for a decent service," he said. In turn, the commons demanded that Parliament hold a specific plenary session on Cercanías and that President Isla appear to give "explanations and solutions" to the citizens while the PP considered that the one who should appear is Minister Puente.

Chronology of a week of daily incidents

The two major breakdowns on Friday and Saturday - and the evacuations on foot along the tracks - have been the unfortunate culmination of a very complicated week for rail mobility. After union protests last weekend forced the cancellation of a hundred commuter trains in the middle of Carnival, on Monday the Minister of Territory, Silvia Paneque, and the director of the commuter trains, Antonio Carmona, were able to see first-hand that the week was not looking much better: the train on which they both travelled from Tarragona to Barcelona and which symbolises the Five months of cuts due to construction work- arrived in the Catalan capital 50 minutes late. Two hours later, rail traffic between Sant Vicenç de Calders and Cunit had to be cut off due to a power outage.

On Tuesday night, a large rock fell on a train on the R3 – which links Barcelona with Puigcerdà – leaving three people slightly injured and forcing the line to be closed between Ribes de Freser and Puigcerdà for the whole of Wednesday. That same day, again in Tarragona, the section between Torredembarra and Sant Vicenç de Calders was delayed for more than half an hour on six commuter lines.

On Thursday, it was the information system that was blown up. The public address system and screens were out of service throughout Catalonia all morning. In Tarragona the problems continued and a road service was set up to cover the section between Sant Vicenç de Calders and Cunit for the following day.

On Friday the Bellvitge breakdown and this Saturday the two high-speed trains close this fateful chronology.