Saturation. That is, according to the Government, the reason why Spanish high speed does not stop accumulating delays and breakdowns. At least, that’s what is suggested. The increase in frequencies, new competitors and the same ways. Those are, for the government, the reason why Spanish trains have been forgetting a year.
289 trains. In the 90s, “6 trains a day, by direction, today through the Torrejón de Velasco point of the Madrid-Sevilla high speed, 289 trains circulated.” With these words Óscar Puente, Minister of Transportationof those who point out that in the 90s there were no problems of delays that today exist in the high railway speed of our country.
“If there was an incidence in the infrastructure or the train, the impact was minimal. The time it took another to pass allowed to solve the problem. Today when there is an incidence you have 25 trains in both ways in a radius of one hour. Therefore the effects are greater.
The controversy. The bridge response tweet comes to an interpellation in which a user indicated that In the 90s you could take a train without fear of delays. The answer also coincides with a new fault in the high -speed line of the Andalusian corridor where 261 passengers had to be evicted from a train because a car caught fire Last Saturday, August 30. This caused delays throughout the afternoon.
However, the fire was not the only cause of delays. That same morninga breakdown in the infrastructure was also causing delays in the trains because it was showing a false obstacle sign on the road. Although before restoring the service it was already known that this obstacle did not exist, the machinists had to stop to comply with the protocol.
A summer to forget in Andalusia. The events of September 30 have been the last of this summer but, much less, the only ones. In early July, A train was stopped 13 hours On the roads and their passengers they did not receive assistance from emergency services throughout the night.
Days later, another problem with A catenary in Toledo It caused significant delays in the same high -speed line. He even had to stop passing through one of the tunnels of the Malaga line by leaks in one of the facilitieswhat had caused detachments.
And Adif? The first of those incidents It seemed to come from an ouigo train which was disconnected from some security systems. This caused the chain stop of four other trains that circulated in the same area. One of those operated by Renfe, overloaded by the stop, ended up suffering a small fire of his systems, being completely arrested.
The problem affected More than 16,000 passengers and From Adif they pointed to the French company as the cause of the problem. Ouigo, meanwhile, returned the accusation saying that Adif did not maintain the facilities correctly. A few days later (and after the adif notice that the critical points of the infrastructure was going to review) that Second problem in La Sagra (Toledo) who stopped the trains again.
More traffic volume … The truth is that the volume of traffic in the high Spanish speed has shot in recent years. To give only one example, the day of the fault that left a train for 13 hours 30 trains between Madrid and Andalusia had to circulate. Yes it is true that 30 years ago, that volume of traffic was unthinkable.
To the traffic of Renfe we must add the entrance of Ouigo and Iryo into the Spanish railways which, without a doubt, has stressed the tracks. If there are more trains, there are more possibilities of suffering a delay but there are also more possibilities that such delay affects a greater number of trains.
To get an idea, in 1992 (with the inauguration of the first high -speed line) 1.3 million passengers traveled between Madrid and Seville. In 2024, that figure was 5 million passengers. Another 5 million passengers were recorded in the corridor to Malaga. And throughout Spain almost 40 million passengers moved in this type of trains, According to CNMC data.
… but an insufficient investment. In ELECONOMIST They point out that Adif’s investment in infrastructure is greater than ever. In 2025 just over 681 million euros will be allocated while in 2015 it was 465.5 million euros. However, they point out that taking into account their heritage, Adifs spends 16% less than a decade ago.
Keep in mind that in that decade, in addition, the Spanish railways have gone from some 31 million passengers To touch the 40 million and the number of trains has multiplied with the entrance of Ouigo and Iroyo. Everything indicates that the investment in the facilities is insufficient and, above all, it is late if we take into account the increase in the number of travelers.
In 2021 investments were guaranteed until 2025 worth 21,000 million euros in Adif But this game It is not dedicated entirely to maintenance of the tracks. That is, it seems that “emergency” maintenance is being carried out in too stressed lines for the expense that had been made in them.
Photo | Tim Adams
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