“It was going to crash into a passenger train” |

He Renfe train derailment in Madrid last Saturday is the latest of the railway problems that besiege the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Oscar Puente. An incident that affected 17,000 people and routes in different parts of Spain and that will have consequences on the trains, at least, until next week.

This newspaper has had exclusive access to several audios of one of the control center workers who maintained communication with other colleagues, audios that are being circulated on the Telegram and WhatsApp channels and groups of professionals in the sector.

On Saturday the incident occurred, which finally ended with the derailment of a unit that was being towed to the Renfe workshops in Fuencarral, after suffering a problem days before near Toledo. An investigation has already been opened to find out what happened. It is in charge of the Railway Accident Investigation Commission.

“He was going at all hell (…) He was going to crash into a passenger train (…) He was going one hundred or two hundred kilometers per hour”

The towing train did not have enough power to lift the damaged train up the ramps up to 30% of the tunnel that connects the stations Atocha and Chamartínso he asked permission to return to a flat place and try to cross the section again. But it was not possible. One of the engines broke and during the subsequent maneuvers the convoy was cut off, which traveled without a driver and completely uncontrolled for about four kilometers, from Chamartín to the Botanical garden.

“I screwed up, they’re going to fire me”

The professional at the center Adif control person in charge of coordinating the trains the same morning of the day of the incident (last Saturday) says in the audios that he does not know “what the hell they have done”, in reference to the driver and the four technicians involved in the derailment.

An accident that could have been worse. As the technician explains, the train was moving at speeds that could be up to 200 kilometers for now. It was heading directly against another train with passengers, so the decision was to change the points – modify the layout of the tracks – to divert the train to avoid the collision. Shortly after, the derailment occurred. “The train was going at full speed (…) It was going to crash into a passenger train (…) It was going one hundred or two hundred kilometers per hour,” can be heard in the audios.

The driver responsible for the train that was towing the damaged unit was very affected by the incident, as explained by the control center professional in another of the recordings: “He said, I screwed up, they’re going to fire me, they’re going to fire me.” “. The Adif worker himself assures that “they must have isolated all the brakes of the useless train and on top of that they cut it off”, concluding that it ended up going “drifting”.

From a more technical point of view, he points out that the maneuver was a “botched job because the train (in reference to the towing unit) had little power“although “it was well done (in reference to the maneuver)”, but he suggests that the problem was its poor execution.

Puente rules out sabotage

Yesterday, the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, ruled out ruling on the cause of derailment and, asked by journalists if it was sabotage, he defended: “I have never used that word and I want to make this clear.”

“I cannot support any thesis for which I do not have any evidentiary element,” he said this Monday in Barcelona in statements to the media about the incidents on the trains between Madrid and the Valencian Community and Murcia this weekend, Europe has reported. Press.

He regretted that the set of incidents were a “perfect storm” and highlighted the work of the Adif and Renfe technicians to put the tunnel into operation and for the service to return to normal this Monday.

Asked about the complaints of some passengers regarding the lack of information, he assured that all users have been informed individually and through the media. “Distortions may occur because not everyone reaches (the news) or receives the information, but we are informing everyone and today is a day of normality,” he explained.