The planners were spared in extreme cases, but neither the President of the Spanish Railways nor the Under-Secretary for Transport and Mobility, whose careless distraction had cost them their jobs: by miscalculation, in fact, 31 new and comfortable trains which was supposed to start service next year on the local short and medium distance network in Cantabria and Asturias, it turned out to be Extra wide for narrow tunnels from those mountains.

Luckily Someone checked the dimensions in time One of the trains designed for Renfe (from the ancient sect Red National de los Ferrocarriles Españoles), and compared them with those of the nineteenth-century galleries in the two northern districts, to which they were directed. but The error will result in a delay of at least two years The long-awaited convoy delivery. It caused an uproar between the government and the opposition.

The agreement was concluded in June 2020 with Spanish construction company Café, which beat competition from France’s Alstom and Germany’s Siemens, securing an order worth €258 million. A small formality remains to be completed before the works begin: Evaluation of tunnel measurements included in the bid notice.

Almost a year later, in March 2021, CAF, based in the Basque Country, realized that the data provided did not correspond to the real data: Ultra-modern, streamlined trains commissioned by Renfe They will never pass through the centuries-old tunnels of the Santander and Oviedo regions.

The company pulled the emergency brake The authorities warned even before the assembly lines began to build caravans.

It is not known what happened in the relevant offices in the following months. The sensational censorship news only leaked this year, towards the end of January. The first entries arrived at the beginning of February, followed by reassurance attempts by the Spanish Railways inafp“There was never a danger that the trains were from faulty procedures,” said Agence France-Presse already entered into productionBecause the manufacturer was contractually obligated to first proceed to the appropriate checks.”

Therefore, the allocated amount of 258 million was not to be lost. But it is not certain that it will now be enough to complete the process, given the staggering increase in the cost of raw materials in recent years. In addition to Postponement of train deliveries Until 2026, he sent the administrators of the two regions into a rage, who want compensation: “We are waiting for clarifications and solutions on the table” demands the president of Asturias, Adrian Barbón Rodríguez (PSOE). “I expect heads to fall – I hope that his counterpart from Cantabria, Miguel Ángel Rivela (PRC, Cantabrian regional party) – will fall. I have never seen such a dirty job in forty years.

His hopes were fulfilled last Monday, when Transport Minister Raquel Sanchez Jimenez agreed right hand resignation, Isabelle Pardo de Vera, who at that time headed the Adive Railway Infrastructure Department; AndTo the President of Renfe, Isaias Tapuas Suarez, At the helm of the company for five years.

From the right, the opposition took it directly President Pedro Sanchez, Socialist: “Your government – the second-in-command of the Popular Party, Coca Jamara, settled in Parliament – orders trains not to pass through the tunnels.”