Dylan Wagemans
THE Spanish government is facing growing criticism over failures in the Spanish rail network, just weeks after cable thieves stranded thousands of passengers in Andalucia and Madrid.
This was not an isolated incident, in September last year a signalling failure caused a train derailment on the Madrid-Barcelona high-speed line, leading to long delays.
“In any other European country, someone would have resigned,” said Partido Popular (PP) leader Alberto Nuñez Feijoo.
The PP blames Minister of Transport Oscar Puente for the poor state of the rail network, while right-wing Vox has called for the Minister’s resignation.
Many people ask questions about what happens with the billions in EU-money that Spain receives to upgrade the nation’s infrastructure.
Many Spaniards are left to wonder that the decrepit rail network is a consequence of corruption, mismanagement or just a failure of public governance.
Spain is the second-largest recipient of EU post-pandemic recovery funds, having already received €47.96 billion in grants and €340 million in loans from the total €724 billion package.
Earlier this year, Puente even announced a record €10 billion of investment into Spain’s rail infrastructure.
Despite rising complaints and compensation claims, top government officials, including Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, have defended the rail system.
Puente himself has previously praised the system as ‘a model of success’, saying in November that the Spanish model ‘should be tried everywhere’.
However, RENFE, the state-owned railway operator, registered 353,665 compensation claims in 2023 – nearly double the 189,212 claims recorded in 2019.
