Spain spent 258m euros on trains when they realized they were too big to pass through the tunnels of the rail network. 31 commuter trains were ordered by Renfe in 2020 and were intended to replace an aging fleet in the northern autonomous regions of Asturias and Cantabria. Completion of the line improvement was planned for 2024, but now everything will be delayed for at least two years, or even more.
Miguel Ángel Revilla, president of Cantabria, described the issue as “an indescribable mess” and added that “heads must fall” as it also appeared that the builder Basque Café had reported the error in March 2021. now fired, but several parties played a role in the fiasco, including national rail operator Renfe, rail infrastructure manager Adif, manufacturer Caf and the State Railroad Safety Agency (ESF). Built in the 19th century, the area’s rail network runs through mountainous terrain, and the tunnels vary in size and do not fit modern and no longer standardized dimensions.
Trains are not yet manufactured as they are still in the design phase, and while this minimizes the cost of error, the time-consuming design and manufacturing process will have to be repeated from scratch. The wagons will now be built using the dimensions of a train already running on the network to allow them to fit in the various tunnels. ADIF will also update the infrastructure data to ensure the problem does not recur.
This is not the first time such a problem has occurred in Europe. In 2014, French rail operator SNcf ordered 2,000 regional trains that were too large for its network. Again, the error was due to the infrastructure manager’s failure to consider structures older than the standardized structures of the time.
Source: Today IT
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
