Renfe orders trains that do not go through the tunnels

BarcelonaThe manufacture by the CAF company of the new fleet of metric width for Renfe will suffer a delay of between two and three years, due to an error in the infrastructure gauges in the statement about the Adif network , according to which the trains were going to be built. In fact, it has been detected that, with the measures published in the statement on the network, trains would not fit on certain sections of the infrastructure. This stopped the process of starting its manufacture and began the search for the best solution, according to a report by Adif, Renfe and the State Railway Safety Agency (AESF).

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In January 2019, Renfe published the tender for the acquisition of 31 metric-gauge trains in accordance with the gauges included in the statement on the Adif network and, in June 2020, awarded CAF the manufacturing, following a bidding process that was affected by the pandemic. In addition to the 31 trains for Renfe’s metric gauge lines, previously managed by Feve in Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, Castile and Leon and the Basque Country, the order included a second batch of six more units to fully renew the fleet of the Madrid line Cercedilla – Cotos de la Sierra, which has been in operation for more than 40 years. The total volume of the operation for CAF was over 250 million euros.

Assume responsibilities

This Saturday the Minister of Transport, Raquel Sánchez, has announced “imminent layoffs” at both Renfe and Adif to “assume responsibility” for the error in train dimensions. Speaking to the media during a visit to the Town Hall of Castro Urdiales (Cantabria), Sánchez apologized to Cantabrian citizens and indicated that this Friday he had a conversation with the president of Cantabria, Miguel Ángel Revilla, to share “anger and his indignation.”

“In the next few hours these terminations will take place and, therefore, we will give the explanations then”, said Sánchez, who has commissioned an internal audit of both Renfe and Adif to “know and know in detail what happened “.

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