CATALONIA has been plunged into travel chaos after a suspected cyberattack disrupted rail services region-wide early on Monday.
All Rodalies commuter trains and Regionales services were suspended twice within minutes around 6.45am amid reports of system shutdowns at the control centre of Adif, the company that manages Spain’s rail infrastructure.
Thousands of passengers were left stranded, with Catalonia’s regional government urging workers to telecommute and universities rescheduling exams as long queues formed at bus stops and on motorways.
READ MORE: BREAKING: Driver dead and at least 20 passengers injured after train derails near Barcelona
Spain’s Transport Minister Oscar Puente said: “We do not know why this has happened. One of the hypotheses is a cyberattack, but we do not know for sure.”
Rail services had just been partially restored in Barcelona after an R4 line train derailed on Tuesday evening last week, killing the driver and injuring nearly 40 passengers.
Trains in the region are currently running intermittently, Spain’s state-owned rail operator Renfe said.
Though officially tasked with investigating the accident, Adif has yet to issue a statement since the shutdowns – but one Renfe spokesperson explained that “all traffic lights suddenly turned red” amid a computer malfunction.
Barcelona Mayor Jaume Collboni said the Rodalies crisis was ‘unacceptable’ and must ‘never happen again.’
“Some of these issues stem from years of underinvestment, and if there have been further problems, those responsible must be held accountable,” he added.
The incident follows one of the worst weeks in Spain’s rail history.
On Sunday last week, at least 45 people died in Adamuz, Cordoba, when carriages from a high-speed Iryo service bound for Madrid crossed onto an adjacent line and collided with an incoming train heading to Huelva.
Authorities are now probing a faulty joint in the tracks believed to have caused the fatal derailment.
Then, in the accident that killed the driver in Barcelona on Tuesday, a train came off the tracks between Gelida and Sant Sadurni, colliding with a retaining wall that collapsed onto the line after heavy rain. Nearly 40 passengers were also injured in the crash.
Rail transport in Barcelona was suspended throughout Wednesday and Thursday as drivers refused to run services over safety fears, sparking travel chaos across the region.
The rail network in Catalonia was slowly returning to normal on Monday when the Adif shutdown caused fresh disruption.
To compound a nefarious week for Spain’s rail, a commuter train hit a construction crane near Murcia’s Cartagena on Thursday, injuring six people – two of whom were under 18.
READ MORE: BREAKING: Spain sees third rail crash in a week – six injured in minor incident
Josep Rius, spokesperson for Catalonia’s independentist party Junts per Catalunya, slammed the regional government over its handling of the emergency, calling on minister of territory Silvia Paneque to resign.
“This is the worst transport crisis Catalonia has experienced in decades,” Rius said. “This is a government of incompetents.”
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