GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP
In Spain, orders for trains too big for tunnels lead to a series of cancellations (Photo of a Renfe train taken in Madrid in 2019)
SPAIN – A size dumplings. In Spain, a case of trains being too big for certain tunnels brought down the head of Spain’s railways and number two at the transport ministry after 15 days of embarrassing controversy for the executive.
Isaias Taboas, who has been at the helm of the Renfe railway company since June 2018, “handed in his resignation” on Monday, February 20, a company spokeswoman told AFP.
What comes after this ad?
This surprise resignation comes alongside that of Secretary of State for Transport Isabel Pardo de Vera, also former president of Spain’s rail network manager Adif, the Transport Ministry confirmed in a brief press release.
Transport Minister Raquel Sanchez “thanked” these two leaders for “the work done in their respective roles,” the ministry said.
The resignations come after more than two weeks of controversy surrounding the order for 31 trains for the rail network in northern Spain, which proved too large for some of the tunnels they had to pass through.
What comes after this ad?
Two years delay and possible additional costs
According to Renfe, this order, worth 258 million euros, went to the Spanish manufacturer of railway equipment CAF, competitors of the French Alstom and the German Siemens, after a tender in June 2020.
According to the train operator, it was this company based in the Basque Country (North) that realized in March 2021 that the dimensions given in the tender were incorrect. She then alerted the authorities even before she started building the trains.
“There was never a risk that trains would be built the wrong size because the manufacturer had the obligation defined in the tender documents to carry out checks,” Renfe assured AFP.
What comes after this ad?
However, this error, made public in early February, almost two years after the problem was discovered, will cause delays in the delivery of the trains, which according to the Bahn Group are to be put into service in 2026 and not in 2024 as originally planned.
According to the Spanish media, there could also be additional costs due to the increase in material prices in recent months. A problem denied by Renfe: “There is no financial problem, no money has been wasted”, assures the group.
Guilty Obfuscation and Opacity
The case has sparked controversy in Spain, where the right-wing opposition has accused Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s government of “culpable concealment” and “opacity” less than a year before general elections scheduled for late 2023. .
What comes after this ad?
“You preside over a government that orders trains that don’t go through tunnels,” ironically Cuca Gamarra, number two of the People’s Party (PP, right), recently conjured up a “fiasco” in parliament.
This controversy had already prompted the Transport Ministry on February 6 to sack the former head of equipment management at Renfe and a senior official at Adif.
She also urged Adif and Renfe to launch a joint investigation to determine the circumstances that led to this situation, which the transport minister described as a “gross error”.
What comes after this ad?
“Haven’t seen it in 40 years”
In response to the resignation of the Renfe boss and the Secretary of State for Transport, the president of the Cantabria Region, Miguel Angel Revilla, demanded from the regionalist party PRC on Monday “compensation” for his territory directly affected by this order, trains.
“We want the circumstances to be clarified and solutions put on the table,” added Adrian Barbon, socialist president of the Asturias region, which was also affected, on Monday ahead of a meeting convened at the Ministry of Transport.
“I apologize again, but I also insist that we work and work to implement the solutions,” underlined the Minister of Transport at the end of this meeting.
What comes after this ad?
“Sloppy work of this magnitude, I’ve never seen it in 40 years,” complained the president of the Cantabria region.
See also on The HuffPost:
You cannot view this content for the following reasons:
- You have rejected cookies related to third-party content by logging in. You can therefore not play our videos, which require third-party cookies to work.
- You are using an ad blocker. We advise you to disable it to be able to access our videos.
If neither of these two cases applies to you, contact us at [email protected].