The jobs for remove the train that was derailed last Saturday in the tunnel between Atocha and Chamartín when it ran through it without control to prevent it from colliding with another convoy is delayed and will not take place this weekend, as originally planned. For this reason, the three railway operators, Iryo, Ouigo and Renfe have no planned changes in their services or in the frequencies of their trains which, in cases where they have to go through the tunnel, will continue to circulate through one of the two waysthe one that is free, as they have been doing throughout this week.
As sources from the Ministry of Transport have confirmed to this newspaper, Adif will not yet proceed to remove the damaged train from the track in complex jobs that will foreseeably require more than a weekend. In any case, it will not be in the next one, when it is expected that the railway traffic through Madrid is “normal”.
That the withdrawal of the train could occur next weekend was the forecast that Adif and Renfe managed last Sunday, once it was normalized circulation behind him railway chaos which had caused the day before train derailment and the paralysis of traffic at the Atocha station for a suicide attempt which forced the suspension of trains to and from the east of the peninsula for more than two hours, from which cancellations and delays that affected nearly 17,000 passengers.
In order to start train circulation normally on Monday, The tunnel was opened to traffic on Sunday and until the train can be taken out it would only run along one of the two ways. Except for two services early on Monday – from Madrid to Murcia and Valencia – since then they have been able circulate “without problems” the trains to the east that departed and arrived in Madrid from the Chamartín station.
In principle, Renfe and Adif decided to leave the train removal work until this weekend, to affect traffic as little as possible, but as the days have passed the possibility has been ruled out. Ultimately it will not be like this because it is still being determined What will an operation be like that will force rescheduling and deletions? of trains and whose duration will foreseeably exceed two days.
Renfe, Ouigo and Iryo do not foresee changes
Meanwhile, both the Ministry of Transport and the railway operators They hope for a weekend without incidentsat least, without alterations to the services and frequencies related to this incident.
Until not the plan to withdraw “is realized” the crashed train, Renfe It will not be able to determine what consequences it will have on the circulation of its trains – high speed and commuter trains that circulate through the tunnel. The “priority”, they say in the Spanish operator, is that “affects customers as little as possible.”
For their part, sources of Iryo have pointed out that “The usual frequencies are maintained regularly”, as has already happened throughout the week, when the trains to Comunitat Valenciana and Murcia have been leaving from Chamartín without problem, despite the fact that on their route they also pass through the tunnel where the derailed train is located.
The same happens with Ouigowho this Thursday hoped that, if the operation to remove the train began, which ultimately will not occur this weekend, there would not be many effects and, at most, some change of season, from Chamartín to Atocha, which for now will not be necessary.
