Trapped in stations: "They've left us stranded like dogs"

Barcelona / MadridSants Station is a chaotic hive of activity from early in the morning: crowds trying to get on the high-speed trains, the commuter service suspendedTrains have been cancelled in Seville and Cadiz, and information screens announce an hour's delay. Dozens of people have spent the night here. Most were tourists or long-distance travelers. María José Aguilera had tickets with her family to go to Valladolid, but they've canceled all of them for this Tuesday, and they've gotten one for tomorrow morning. "We arrived at the station at 5 p.m. and they wouldn't let us in until 8 a.m.," she says, sitting on the floor with a coffee. "We got a hotel and we'll go at noon to get a decent night's sleep, but everything is very expensive and full," she complains. A group of female urban dance students from Madrid is despairing because they don't know when they'll get a ticket. Their train is one of the canceled ones, and they complain that they've been told to "find their own way," but the buses to the Spanish capital are full and the alternative to flying is "astronomically expensive," so they're sitting outside Sants Cathedral. "At least we've qualified for the World Cup, that's all we'll take," they exclaim, their faces tired.

A few meters away, a resident of Puigcerdà is angry because she spent the night on a bench; she was heading to Madrid yesterday afternoon. The station is a poem. RENFE personnel distributed small bottles of water, and the Red Cross transported families with small children to a sports center. stranded near Zaragoza, they were rescued by the UME (Mechanical Emergency Unit) and the Civil Guard. They are waiting for a guide to arrive so they can continue their journey.

Some 150 people spent the night at the Industrial Spain Sports Center, a few meters from Sants station, cared for by the Red Cross. It is one of the spaces set up by Barcelona City Council to accommodate, primarily, families with children and elderly people who had missed their train connection. In the case of Pilar Álvarez, 80, the blackout caused her to miss the Mediterranean cruise that was scheduled to depart at 9 p.m. yesterday. Now, her daughter is trying to find transportation to Genoa, the ship's first stop, to board her. This Madrid native speaks highly of the Red Cross staff, who have showered them with care and kindness. "Not a 10, a 20," she explains, emphasizing that last night she swapped a luxury cabin for a pavilion with a mattress on the floor. "The important thing is that nothing happened to us," she says.

Fifteen Andalusian students on their end-of-year trip were also supposed to be at the crossing at this time, and they've barely gathered their things and had time to wash their faces at the sports center. They were on the train leaving Seville for about 12 hours. The power outage stranded them on a train in Castellbisbal. No water, no food, and only a urinator in a plastic bottle. Aware that "no one is responsible," they do complain that they didn't have to wait so many hours to get them off the train so they could walk along the tracks and catch a bus to Barcelona. Now they have bus tickets to Genoa and are confident that in a few hours it will all be "an experience worth sharing" and that the sun and the Mediterranean will make them forget their bad start to the trip.

At the other end of Barcelona, ​​at Estacion del Norte, another 137 people have spent the night at the municipal sports center, where the Red Cross and firefighters also set up a space with mattresses, a hygiene kit, drinks and food, Wi-Fi, and chargers. "People were crying for chargers," says Raül Olivart, a director of the Eixample district, who coordinated the operation with district manager Elisenda Capera. Dayary Pineda, a Venezuelan living in Valencia, had come to Barcelona with her partner at the embassy to sort out her documentation. They found themselves "without a train, without communications, without anything" and considered spending the night at Estacion del Norte, but City Hall staff went around the stations to offer them a bed in the ward. "Thank you," he admits, this Tuesday at eight in the morning. They are practically the last to leave the ward and will have to find a way back, "by bus or BlaBlaCar," he predicts. John is an Italian from Valencia who had a train at 8:15. When he realized Sants was impossible to get to, he tried the bus at Estacion del Norte. "A 20-year-old kid from Castellón bought me dinner because I didn't have any cash, and when I can, I'll give him a Bizum. It's embarrassing not to have any money," says John. He'd already spent the night at the pavilion and this morning he was looking for options to get home.

People on the ground in Atocha

At Atocha Station, some 150 people slept on the floor in the AVE (High-Speed Train) lobby. Emergency services provided blankets to anyone who asked. High-speed trains were reactivated at 6 a.m. and trains began departing. Renfe (AVE) prioritized passengers with day tickets, but doubled carriages to accommodate those scheduled to depart yesterday. However, hundreds of passengers are still waiting to be relocated. Many wait at the security gates and only allow those who must leave within a few minutes to pass.

The members of the Catalan band Primogenito López played in Madrid on Saturday and were scheduled to return to Barcelona on Monday afternoon on an Ouigo train. With all their instruments in hand, they spent the night in the Atocha high-speed train lobby. When the power came back on, they had dinner near the station and went in at midnight to spend the night. The Ouigo company only offered them a refund or an exchange for Tuesday, so they opted to get their money back and buy a new AVE ticket for today at 7:30 a.m. Another person affected by the chaos at Atocha is Russian tennis player Andrey Rublev, recently eliminated from the Mutua Madrid Open being held these days in the Spanish capital. He's putting on a sour face, probably due to the defeat and the mishap when boarding the train. He avoids speaking to the ARA, pretending he doesn't understand the language.And don't speak Spanish, man.", he insists.

Ernesto has been traveling since Saturday night and won't arrive at his final destination: Seville until Tuesday. He's from "Messi's city," Rosario, and took a bus to Buenos Aires. From there, he flew to Sao Paulo, where he boarded a plane bound for Beijing, but which had a stopover to refuel in Madrid. Yesterday, when he arrived at Barajas Airport and saw the general downturn, he thought it best to go to Atocha Station, but found the station closed. He was able to get in to sleep that night and is grateful for the good service from the Military Emergency Unit and the Red Cross, who provided blankets, water, and broth. He was able to exchange his Iryo ticket from Seville for one to Córdoba, and once there, he'll figure out how to get to Seville. "At least I'll be closer," he says. He says he had to do it this way because neither Iryo nor Renfe were selling new tickets to Seville. "In Argentina, we're used to it, but my friends laugh at me for losing power in Spain," he jokes. "I came to relax!" he laughs.