New chapter of the train of infamy in Extremadura. Another breakdown in the line of this community has left passengers lying in the middle of the field, at night, for almost three hours, until another emergency convoy has reached the place of the incident, near Llerena (Badajoz). It was night and passengers have complained about the lack of information, the inability to buy even water in the vending machines and the impotence of a mechanic who could not fix the fault. So much so, that a passenger (of the 18 who were traveling) suffered an attack of "claustrophobia and was taken in an SUV that had difficulties until we were where we were», according to another affected traveler in a letter addressed to different media, where he denounces the incidents that occurred last Sunday night.

This time it was, according to Renfe, a "mechanical breakdown" in which train covering the Seville-Cáceres line, when the train was stopped at 9:15 pm in the middle of the field, between the towns of Fuente del Arco and Llerena . In spite of the numerous incidents that occurred in the Extremadura line (a single route) - also during the past weekend, where numerous delays accumulated - Renfe called the problem of "punctual incidence" and goes on to say that it launched "a fast and efficient mechanism "to transfer affected passengers. These, however, warn that they had to wait between two and a half hours and three hours thrown in the middle of the field, until another machine arrived to pick them up and then be transferred by buses or taxis to their destinations. The public entity itself speaks of the fact that the affected train stopped at "a difficult access point". Renfe does acknowledge that the fact that the incident occurred on a "Sunday afternoon in the month of August" caused the response to be delayed "more than usual."

"We were locked up without letting ourselves out, without information, for two and a half hours," complains another of those affected, until the emergency train arrived on which they were transferred. “The deal was very bad, since they did not provide us with any information, there were no bottles of water in the train vending machines - which, given the forecast of breakdowns, should not be allowed - and nobody approached us in the two hours and a half to see if we were well or needed anything. They only let out a man with an attack of claustrophobia and took him in an SUV that had difficulties until we were where we were, ”says the affected traveler. This traveler was transferred to a nearby hospital to observe his evolution.

In addition, he explains that "the train was making very strange noises throughout the trip" and after the train was stopped "the mechanic who was on the train acknowledged that he did not have the necessary knowledge to fix the fault." According to this testimony, all passengers maintained "calm and composure at all times."

Another traveler explains in his twitter account: "Embarrassing: 2h40 'locked in a train 1.5km from Llerena without giving us any explanation or solution. After that time, we were transferred to another in the middle of the field by stony area."

More incidents

The incidents have not only focused on the Seville-Zafra line. Adif also reported delays on the train that connects Cáceres with Madrid due to an "infrastructure incident" last Monday due to a failure in the infrastructure system. This caused delays of approximately 40 minutes. The problem is that the Railway Infrastructure Manager does not have the main traffic control system, so a less agile one has been used, which has resulted in significant delays.

On the other hand, this Monday a failure was detected in the Centralized Traffic Control (CTC) between the stations of Badajoz and Villanueva de la Serena. This incident has affected four medium-distance trains with average delays of 12 minutes.

In addition, this past weekend, the train that covered the Madrid-Zafra line overwhelmed a tourism that had broken down on the tracks when it crossed a level crossing in the municipal district of the Toledo town of Domingo Pérez, leaving two injured , the occupants of the vehicle, a man of 50 years and his daughter of twelve.

In 2018, the Central Government only executed half of what was approved in the General State Budgets for the improvement of train lines in Extremadura. Thus, the Executive left without spending 114 million of the 363.9 budgeted. Specifically, the high-speed investment was 139 million (53%) and 4.7 million (49%) were allocated to the railroad, according to the data of the General Intervention of the State Administration.

The Board requests a meeting with the Government

After these new incidents, the president of the Junta de Extremadura, Guillermo Fernández Vara, today announced the convening of the Pact for the Railroad and has advanced that he will propose to the Government of Spain in September a meeting to see "the itinerary from now". In this organism created in the last legislature, PP and Podemos are no longer present, who left it claiming that it was only a "paripé" and a "makeup" where no real solutions to the problem were taken.

Fernández Vara has assured that in this meeting the proposals will be analyzed by 2021 for the end of each of the sections and the implementation of the new services. In addition, the Extremaduran president has shown the "absolute rejection" of the regional Executive to the incidents recorded in the trains of the region in recent days, so, as he has informed, a meeting has been requested with officials of the Ministry of Development and Renfe for "that this does not happen again". According to Vara, with the Government of Pedro Sánchez the situation of the Extremadura train "something better is than before all the machines were changed", and has compared the incidents of last summer with those of this one, where according to his data he has now dropped The number of incidents.

Meanwhile, the deputy spokesman of the PP in the Assembly, Luis Alfonso Hernández Carrón, has also denounced that the state budget for the railroad in Extremadura in 2018 has only been executed by 50 percent. In this line, he has indicated that "summer arrives and as the nougat at Christmas trains are stopped again in Extremadura," said Hernández Carrón, who understands that the position of the Board now in rail matters evidences "socialism in state pure ", to" not "claim before the central government when the power is held by the PSOE, he said.

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  • Guillermo Fernández Vara
  • Estremadura

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