“You cannot monitor 24 hours 15,000 kilometers of network, but you will have to put more means.” The phrase left her yesterday during An interview In Antena3 the president of Renfe, Álvaro Fernández de Heredia, and is interesting for several reasons. First for what he says. Second, for how he says it. And third (and fundamental), when he says. The rail operator complaint comes after the bird line between Madrid and Sevilla lived chaotic hours on Sunday by the Cable theft of copper in several points of the layout.
What happened is serious, but it reveals something more worrying: how difficult it is to shield a network thousands of kilometers.
Collapse on the Madrid-Seville line. The bird line between Madrid and Seville (The dean of the Spanish high -speed network) did not go through its best moment on Sunday night and Monday morning. Delays Stakes arrested for hours. Collapsed stations. AND More than 16,000 passengers affected. Although the collapse coincided with An incident starring an Iryo train, both Adif as the Minister of Transportation, Óscar Puentethey did not take long to relate what happened to the theft of cable on the line.
“A serious sabotage act”. Sunday night, with the bird line between Madrid and Seville still knocked out, Oscar Puente spoke already of a “serious sabotage act” and pointed specifically to the theft of cable at various points distributed within about 10 kilometers. The thefts were recorded in five different locations distributed among the PK 102+200 and 92+800in the province of Toledo. In total the thieves took 150 m of copper cable.
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A booty of 300 euros. The big question that was bouncing on Sunday and has continued to do so yesterday and today is what is the reason behind what bridge closets “sabotage.” Copper It has been revalued coinciding With the tariff war unleashed by Trump, but a priori the metal stolen in the Toledo line is rather scarce. The Government delegation has made accounts and calculates that its value Barely reaches 300 eurosso it has suggested that the real objective was to “block the road.” “That cable, which has very little value, is optimal for primar service to the line,” ditch.
Bridge insists on talking about “A coordinated action” perpetrated by someone who “knew what was going” while the issue of the political debate. The PP has even related to the “obvious deterioration” of public services and He has demanded an “audit of the entire network”. Beyond the political or research sand that It has already opened A court of Toledo, what happened in the bird line between Madrid and Seville raises a fundamental question:
Is it so easy to steal on the network? It is not the first time that the rail network suffers a robbery or sabotage. In 2022 The Civil Guard stopped to a band that was dedicated to stealing copper in the bird line in Valladolid, Palencia and Burgos. In total it had been made with a boot of 185,000 euros. And years before, In 2015he had already arrested 28 people from a Madrid organization related to the theft of more than 30,000 m of rail cable in several communities. In that case it was estimated that their “blows” had cost about 840,000 euros.
The Rodalies case. The above are only two examples that can be easily found in the newspaper library. There are moredistributed by different latitudes of the Spanish geography, and that not only affect the high speed network. Does Just a year Without going any further Catalonia suffered the theft of 40 meters of cable on the Rodalies network at 300 m from the Montcada-Bifurcació station. The incident in turn caused an over -teaching that ended up affecting the service.
Yesterday Europa Press It echoed From a balance of the security forces that show that only in 2024 they registered 4,433 copper wiring and conductive materials, 87% more than a five years. In total, 987 people were arrested and investigated, double that in 2019. The balance is general and does not only relate the robberies that affect the rail network, but still gives an approximate idea of how frequent these types of crimes and also how it has been able to affect them the price increase of copper.
A great network, a great challenge. The key was given yesterday by Fernández de Heredia during Your interview In Antena3: Spain has a wide (very wide) railway network and that is at the same time a chance and a huge security challenge. The Adif and Adif Av enclos 15,519 kilometers of network, of which 9,984 are electrified and just over 3,700 high -speed connections of different types.
And that is just the Railway Network owned by ADIF. To control them in 2021 the organism He tendered a contract of surveillance and security services for three years (from April 2022 to March 2025) that amounted to 210.8 million euros. But still the challenge of monitoring the entire network is considerable. The bridge itself He explained That the 150 meters of stolen cable over the weekend were taken out of difficult access areas, between forest and olive groves.
“We will have to put more means”. “You cannot monitor 24 hours 15,000 kilometers of network, but more means will have to be put to avoid it because the disorder caused by these robberies to travelers is very high,” He insisted yesterday The president of Renfe. In the past and before terrorist threats the government came to use the army to monitor the lines, as happened In July 2005after the attacks suffered in London.
Images | Nelso Silva (Flickr) and TRANSPORT MINISTRY (X)
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