The glitch left thousands of passengers stuck with long and unpredictable travel times on Monday morning. Cable thefts brought train service to a standstill all over Spain. Transport Minister Óscar Puente declared that train services are “completely” being put back in “order.” That follows a disruptive night that was felt by more than 10,000 passengers in cities such as Madrid, Seville, Malaga, Valencia and Granada.
The thefts indiscriminately occurred at five different stations along the entire high-speed rail line. Remarkably, all of these spots are within a few kilometers of one another. This occurrence comes on the heels of a similar blackout that equally stopped rail operations throughout Spain and Portugal only a week earlier. Madrid’s Atocha station subsequently bore the majority of these shocks. Thousands of distressed travelers remained stranded as they anxiously checked with no word about their future travel possibilities.
Then mayor of the city, Óscar Puente, condemned the cable thefts as a “serious act of sabotage.” He emphasized the need to increase security standards for critical infrastructure. He noted that more than 30 of those effecting trains were cargo. This disruption created a major ripple effect on the schedule, but services slowly got back to normal over the course of the day.
“Operations are now fully restored after a very difficult night for commuters… and staff, who had to respond under extremely complex circumstances,” Puente stated during a press briefing.
The escalating price of copper has been driving a dramatic increase in cable thefts. This unprecedented increase in value has incentivized criminals to attack our train and telecommunications networks at alarming rates. The disruption came immediately following a four-day weekend in Madrid. This really threw a wrench into travel plans as the city was preparing for the week-long Feria festival in Seville.
As rail services came back online, it was Spain’s national rail manager, Adif, who brought the positive news. Last updated by Monday afternoon, operations were slowly getting back to normal. Authorities are currently investigating the incidents to avoid such incidents in the future and keep train operations safe and reliable.
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