Two resignations for a “fiasco”: in Spain, a case of trains too large for certain tunnels brought down the head of the Spanish railways and the number two of the Ministry of Transport, after fifteen days of embarrassing controversy for the Executive. At the helm of the Renfe railway company since June 2018, Isaías Taboas “presented” his resignation on Monday, a company spokeswoman told AFP.
This surprise resignation is added to that of the Secretary of State for Transport Isabel Pardo de Vera, also former president of the manager of the Spanish railway network Adif, as confirmed by the Ministry of Transport in a brief press release. The Minister of Transportation, Raquel Sánchez, “expressed her gratitude” to these two leaders for “the work carried out in their respective functions,” the ministry said.
The resignations come after more than two weeks of controversy related to the order for 31 trains for the railway network in northern Spain, whose size turned out to be too large for the tunnels through which they had to pass. This order, worth 258 million euros, was awarded after a tender in June 2020 to the Spanish manufacturer of railway material CAF, a competitor of the French Alstom and the German Siemens, according to Renfe.
“Guilty Concealment”
According to the railway operator, it was this company, based in the Basque Country (north), that realized in March 2021 that the dimensions provided during the tender were incorrect. He then alerted the authorities even before construction of the trains began. “There was never a risk of incorrectly sized trains being built because the manufacturer had the obligation, defined in the specifications,” to carry out controls, Renfe assured AFP.
This error -made public at the beginning of February, almost two years after the problem was detected- will, however, cause delays in the delivery of the trains, which should be put into circulation in 2026 and not in 2024 as initially planned, according to the group .ferrocarril According to the Spanish media, it could also generate additional costs due to the increase in the prices of materials in recent months. A problem denied by Renfe: “There is no economic problem, no money has been wasted,” says the group.
The case has sparked a heated controversy in Spain, where the right-wing opposition has accused the government of the president of the socialist government Pedro Sánchez of “culpable cover-up” and “opacity”, less than a year before the legislative elections scheduled for the end of 2023 “You preside over a government that orders trains that do not go through tunnels”, this is how the number two of the Popular Party (PP, right), Cuca Gamarra, ironized recently in Parliament, evoking a “fiasco”.
Asturias, Cantabria…
This controversy had already led the Ministry of Transport to dismiss the former head of equipment management at Renfe and a senior position at Adif on February 6. He also pressured Adif and Renfe to open a joint investigation to determine the circumstances that led to this situation, described as a “serious error” by the Minister of Transport.
Reacting this Monday to the resignations of the head of Renfe and the Secretary of State for Transport, the president of the Cantabria region Miguel Ángel Revilla, of the regionalist PRC party, demanded “compensation” for his territory, directly affected by this erroneous order. trenes “We want the circumstances to be clarified” and “solutions to be put on the table,” added Adrián Barbón, socialist president of the Asturias region, also affected, on Monday before a meeting called at the Ministry of Transport.
“I reiterate my apologies but I also insist that we are working and that we are working to implement the solutions”, stressed the Minister of Transport at the end of this meeting. “A sloppy job of this magnitude, I had not seen it in 40 years,” lashed out the president of the Cantabria region.
Source: BFM TV
