At 6:00 a.m. this Saturday, Adif has recovered circulation on both tracks of the High Speed ??Line (LAV) that connects Madrid and the Valencian Community and the Region of Murcia, and Renfe has resumed circulation on AVE trains at 6:30 a.m. and Avlo on that line, affected yesterday by four incidents that prevented the circulation of trains of all operators for almost the entire day.
As reported by Adif and Renfe, traffic has been recovered after completing the repair work on an element of the electrical system, the catenary, in the vicinity of Monteagudo de las Salinas (Cuenca).
Yesterday’s incidents began at 8:20 a.m., at the Monteagudo facilities and continued at 8:47 a.m., with a lack of electrical tension in the catenary between Monteagudo and Albacete Bifurcation, which forced the use of single track traffic on this route. As a result of this lack of tension, a train from the French operator Ouigo was stopped en route.
At 11:56 a.m., a new incident affected the electrification system and caused the stoppage of a Renfe AVE train, which generated a total cutoff of circulation on the two tracks in the same section, Monteagudo-Bifurcación Albacete, of the line. High Speed ??Line Madrid-Valencia/Alicante/Murcia.
Since that moment, the specific causes of the different incidents are being analyzed, an investigation that has not been concluded and whose information will be submitted, both by Renfe and by Adif, to the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, which from the first moment He asked the public companies integrated into the Ministry (Adif and Renfe) for the maximum possible diligence.
The concatenation of all these incidents caused the total suspension of circulation from that hour. At that time, Renfe had nine trains in circulation, which were making various routes in both directions on the Valencia-Madrid, Madrid-Alicante, Santander-Alicante and Madrid-Murcia routes. The nine trains were occupied by a total of 1,824 passengers, who were detained along the way.
For all of them, Renfe offered a train and bus system that consisted of five buses, for travelers on the stopped AVE train, which were transferred by road to Cuenca, the same buses that later served to transport travelers by road from Cuenca to Valencia. In addition, three buses were made available to passengers that made several trips, like shuttles, between Albacete and Cuenca, to enable transfers between trains that were at both stations and to continue to their destination; two buses in Madrid, to take travelers to Valencia and Alicante.
These trains could not run from Madrid to their destination due to the breakdown on the line. For these travelers, these buses were available to continue the road trip from this city to their destinations; 25 taxis in Madrid, for travelers who got off in Madrid from those same trains and whose destination was cities near the capital, and medium-distance train services by conventional route, from Albacete to Madrid.
Renfe also made itself available to the French operator Ouigo, whose train was stopped, with passengers on board, since 8:20 in the morning, to transfer its passengers, both to a Renfe relief train and to buses. Finally, Ouigo was able to assist his travelers on his own.
From 11:56 a.m., the moment of total suspension of circulation on the line, Renfe also contacted all passengers on the trains whose circulation was scheduled throughout the day to announce the incident and offer them the possibility of changes or cancellations of tickets without any cost.
Throughout the day, Renfe reinforced information personnel on the ground at the stations in Madrid, Cuenca, Albacete, Alicante and Valencia, with the aim of responding to all requests for help and transportation from the company’s customers.
At 10:00 p.m., Renfe was able to tow, with a train with diesel traction (since there was no electricity in the section in question), the AVE train that was stopped in the middle of the track.
In this way, Renfe was able to make the track available to Adif technicians so that they could proceed to repair the damaged catenary (electrical lines). Following the work carried out by Adif, this morning traffic has resumed since the start of the service and Adif is analyzing the specific causes of the different incidents.
