The incident that occurred on Sunday on the Madrid railway network when an intercity train derailed is less clear. In the last few hours, technicians have managed to remove the damaged train from the tracks, but “it is still there” stuck in the tunnel between Atocha and Recoletos, a Renfe spokeswoman said this morning. To be able to remove it, special machines are required. There is no estimated time for the operation to be completed, but Renfe is confident it will be able to use both tracks on Wednesday.
Due to the presence of the train, traffic in this tunnel has been restored this Tuesday since the service began at 6:00 a.m., although with restrictions. Since the trains run on a single track, the transit frequency is extended to 15 minutes. This affects the Cercanías Madrid lines C-1, C-2, C-7, C-9 and C-10, as well as medium and long-distance trains that use this section.
This Tuesday the Cercanías service will be provided with restrictions. However, it runs on a route between Atocha and Recoletos and trains can operate with restrictions and stop in Recoletos.
— Cercanías Madrid (@CercaniasMadrid) November 28, 2023
At the political level, all political groups of the Madrid Assembly have asked the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, to give Cercanías Madrid a “priority” after the incident that paralyzed traffic through the tunnel from Sunday afternoon until this morning. After the meeting of speakers, the Secretary General of the PSOE, Juan Lobato, explained that he had already asked Puente last week to review the situation of Cercanías in the region after the “big leap” made this year with the works in Atocha improve and in Chamartín.
From Más Madrid, Manuela Bergerot criticized the fact that public transport between PP and PSOE is used to “throw at each other”, be it Cercanías, managed by the central government, or Metro, by the community. For his part, the spokesman for the PP, Carlos Díaz-Pache, once again criticized that “the investments have not arrived for years” and recalled that the 5,000 million plan previously drawn up by the government of Mariano Rajoy “is on the shelf “was and was rejected. Vox spokesman Rocío Monasterio described the situation on the railway network as a “scandal”. The icing on the cake was provided by regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who accused the government of “kidnapping the people of Madrid” with the ongoing incidents in Cercanías.
While the train is being towed out of the tunnel, Renfe has created an alternative transport plan that will continue to operate until the train can be removed. So it was reopened the Recoletos station, but the service is provided on a single platform, with stops for trains from Guadalajara and El Escorial. The trains from the Green Corridor to Atocha terminate and start their service in Atocha. Those coming from the airport end and begin their service in Nuevos Ministerios, while those departing from Príncipe Pío to Chamartín end and begin their service in Pitis.
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Renfe also maintains the alternative transport plan for medium and long-distance trains with departure or destination Alcázar de San Juan, Jaén, Almería or Extremadura. So the trains to Almería, Jaén and Extremadura leave Chamartín and travel towards Villaverde Bajo on an alternative route, called Contour. There the trains wait for travelers who start in Atocha, from where they travel via Cercanías to Villaverde Bajo to change to the train to their destination.
Travelers from Almería, Jaén, Alcázar de San Juan and Extremadura arrive in Aranjuez and Leganés respectively and change there to Cercanías trains towards Atocha. “Adif and Renfe technicians have been working since Sunday afternoon to resolve the incident in order to restore traffic on the two roads between Atocha and Recoletos and return to complete normality as quickly as possible,” Renfe added.
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