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ARCHIVED - Rail chaos in Alicante and Sevilla as passengers suffer four hour delays in scorching heat
Mechanical failures on the AVE high-speed line connecting the cities with Madrid led to huge travel disruptions
The travel chaos witnessed in airports across Spain of late was mirrored on railway platforms in Alicante and Sevilla this week after mechanical failures led to delays of up to four hours on connecting trains to Spain's capital, Madrid.
Furious and frustrated passengers claim they were left waiting anxiously on platforms completely in the dark about the cause of the staggering delays. "Nobody has informed us of anything," fumed one passenger on Twitter.
According to the rail service operator Renfe, the far-reaching problems began after an AVE train left Madrid destined for Sevilla at 3pm on Monday July 25 and suffered a mechanical breakdown as soon as it left the capital's Atocha station, "forcing it to restart all train services".
The fault was actually solved after the first restart having already caused a 40 minute delay, but reoccurred several times along the route to the Andalucian city.
"The train ran and stopped every two minutes", according to passengers on board, and each time it stopped they were left without services such as air conditioning.
Also read: Final week of Ryanair strikes begins in Spain with 11 cancellations
Travellers claim that "at no time did the train reach its top speed", close to 300 kilometres per hour, and was forced to stop at Ciudad Real and Córdoba, ultimately creating a domino effect with disruptions across the whole route and return journeys.
The 'high-speed' train eventually arrived in Sevilla at 9.14pm, three hours and 40 minutes late (its arrival was scheduled for 5.34pm), which meant the AVE 02181 train that was due to leave the Andalucian capital for Atocha at 6.43pm still hadn't left the station almost two-and-a-half hours later.
A similar situation occurred on connections between Alicante and Madrid, as the train that was due to arrive in the latter at 8.25pm didn't do so until an hour later because because of earlier delays.
Con este gobierno de Pedro Sánchez el transporte público no funciona. Retraso tras retraso en buses, cercanías, aquí en Alicante el AVE más de media hora de retraso y aquí seguimos. @GPPopular @ppcv @populares @alicantepp pic.twitter.com/OCVQLgOJHC
— César Sánchez (@sanchezcesar) July 25, 2022
Monday was one of the hottest days on record in Alicante, which has an outdoor train station, meaning hundreds of passengers were forced to hang around on platforms in extreme temperatures.
Not surprisingly, tensions were running high as people desperately tried to find out what was causing the delays.
"People were shouting and complaining, there were babies crying, soaked in sweat because it was so hot where we were. They didn't give us water or anything," says Sara, a 30-year-old from Madrid who was returning home from Alicante.
"Nobody informed us of anything, neither on the loudspeakers nor on the screens, and the only thing they told us was that they didn't know anything. An hour later I received an email informing me of the delay, which I already knew because I was experiencing it," she told Spanish press.
Renfe has since promised that passengers who suffered severe disruptions can request a ticket refund.
Now read: Life-saving drone speeds up critical response times at Alicante beaches, Spain
Image: Twitter (Archive)
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