Delays Delays More delays. And full stations, trains thrown by exasperated roads and passengers. The last month on the Spanish railroad has been especially bad and, in addition, he has assaulted at high speed which, until now, seemed a safe space for expected delays and inconveniences.
An alternative. Since 2023, the government has been trying to position the train as the best alternative to the car. A year and a half ago, the Executive proposed solutions to end short flights and prioritize the use of the train.
That same year, given the increase in life as a result of the Ukraine War, the Government promoted its aid to public transport, where trains had a leading role with even free fertilizers. He wanted to take advantage to sell the benefits of this means of transport in the day to day and also, why not, as a tool to travel on vacation. Until this year, the aid has remained active.
“Decades”. “The succession of technical incidents have plunged the rail service in a lack of unknown reliability in decades.” This is the first phrase of the last statement of the OCU in which reference is made to the measures to be taken if you have been one of those affected by the delays and cancellations that have been experienced in the Spanish railroad in recent weeks.
“The days when Renfe returned the amount of the AVE passage to arrive five or 15 minutes afternoons have been far behind and the repetition of incidents have progressively deteriorates the reliability of a service that, once, was exemplary,” they emphasize in the text.
“Five the 15 minutes late”. It is no accident that in the OCU they refer to those “five or 15 minutes late.” In June of last year, Renfe hardened the conditions to return money to users. Until then, arriving with a delay of 15 minutes allowed to receive 50% of the ticket. If the wait was greater than 30 minutes, the passenger received 100% of the ticket Price. That is over.
Since July 1, 2024, in AVE, Avlo, Alvia, Euromed and Interity Renfe only returns 100% of the ticket if the delay is more than 90 minutes. And until the delay does not exceed travel time the passenger does not receive at least 50% of the ticket price. It was the confirmation that the punctuality in Renfe was already a thing of the past.
Its impact. We collected in WorldOfSoftware That, in 2023, Renfe already had to pay 42 million euros, according to FACUA data. An amount that could have promoted to almost 70 million euros if all affected users had requested compensation. At the moment, there is no data on what has been the amount of last year and how this new policy of commitment to the traveler has affected in the second half of the year.
Horrible. It is the word that best defines Renfe’s last 15 days but could be extended further back. The difference is that in the last 15 days, delays, cancellations and collapsed stations have been more common than ever.
On April 28, of course, the national blackout left all the trains that were circulating inoperative. More than a day later, three of them remained disappeared. Days later, the theft of copper in four points of the Madrid-Seville line and an incident of an Iryo train with a catenary caused chaos in the high speed line. More than 16,000 passengers were affected.
Óscar Puente, Minister of Transportation, said that copper theft was not the ultimate goal and that the action hid a “serious act of sabotage.” Doubts were also raised about the Iroo train incident. After ensuring that it was the train that broke the catenary, from the company they claim that it was already broken when the train passed there.
More firewood. Last Sunday, the incidents in the Madrid-Sevilla line were repeated again. Again, eight trains were affected by what long delays were lived throughout the afternoon. The first one was the most affected, arriving 144 minutes late in Madrid (from Seville) compared to the scheduled time.
Given this situation, the OCU has launched the aforementioned statement and has indicated that companies are obliged to meet the following demands:
- Information as soon as possible.
- Refreshments from 60 minutes of delay, in quantity appropriate to the duration of the waiting.
- Accommodation if you have to spend the night.
- The power to choose whether you continue the trip by an alternative route or if you give up.
- Refund of the ticket price in case of giving up the alternative route.
And they emphasize that the only cases in which the ticket price is not returned are the following:
- It was notified of the delay before buying the ticket.
- Alternative transport was taken and the destination was reached with a delay less than one hour.
- The delay is due to extraordinary circumstances.
“Are there incidents? Yes”. “And I apologize but talking about rail chaos is a hyperbole.” With these words Álvaro Fernández Heredia, president of Renfe, of those who ask that his position as a result of the delays lived in the last two weeks are defended.
According to Fernández Heredia, “two perfect storms come together: the effect of having abandoned the rail for 10 years more actions derived from the entire investment effort,” in an interview with 20Minutos. And he emphasizes that “this Sunday there were seven trains affected and more than 95,000 travelers who were not affected, who were arriving at the time.”
Punctual? This is how they look in Renfe. On the occasion of the controversy for hardening the conditions when returning a ticket, from Renfe they published data related to punctuality. According to these, 87% of the AVE arrive in time and the figure grows to 91.5% when we talk about the Cercanías service.
Despite this, out of high speed, today importance delays in Catalonia have been experienced. In less than a week, they have been experienced near Madrid or the Basque Country. In less than a month the same situation has also been experienced in Catalonia, Valencian Community and in Malaga.
A year to forget. They are, as we say, the last cases. But the Spanish rail system has been forgetting a year. In fact, the first two days of 2025 were already a nightmare with 35,000 passengers affected because the new Talgo trains experienced a computer failure that left them standing.
In Galicia, travel times are not being fulfilled to get to Madrid. In Extremadura every small time cut on the way. In Asturias they closed the year 2024 with wide delays in the network and were also affected with the incidents of the first days of the year.
Photo | Renfe
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