The defective circulation of a train without passengers at the entrance to Barcelona has forced to interrupt traffic at Barcelona-Sants station from early Friday morning of more than twenty standard gauge trains, which are used by high-speed trains, as well as the Avant and Euromed services. In addition to Renfe, Iryo and Ouigo trains have also been affected. Normality was restored in the afternoon.
Due to an incident in the infrastructure, the circulation of standard gauge trains from Barcelona Sants is interrupted. Adif staff is working to resolve this incident as soon as possible.
— INFOAdif (@InfoAdif) September 13, 2024
According to sources from Adif who informed EFE, the incident occurred at 06.35 hours and, since then, technicians from the railway infrastructure manager have been working to resolve it. Eight hours later, at 14.30, it was resolved, and traffic was gradually returning to normal. The incident affected trains that run on the standard gauge, which are mainly high-speed trains, both long-distance and Avant, but where other services also run, such as the Euromed, which connects Barcelona with Valencia.
Initially, it was reported that a train had derailed, although Adif later clarified that a train with problems had caused damage at two different points on the track.
Following the first cancellations, hundreds of passengers have lined up outside the ticket offices of Renfe, Ouigo and Iryo. Andrea Pascassé, a passenger on Iryo, had bought a ticket to Madrid at 8.15am. “Half an hour before departure, they told me that there would be a 30-minute delay. When the train was due to leave, they announced that someone would come to pick us up at midday to sort out the situation. I am waiting for a refund because I am going to miss my flight that leaves Madrid for Caracas at three in the afternoon,” she says.
Sources from Iryo have confirmed that the affected trains are those that had their departure point at Sants station. “The only ones that have been able to leave are those coming from Madrid or Seville and that passed through Barcelona.” Renfe has communicated that at 09.00 hours they have a total of 9 trains that have not been able to leave the depots to provide service. Meanwhile, the station is accumulating hundreds of passengers waiting for the situation to normalize. The Generalitat has activated the Ferrocat pre-alert due to the accumulation of passengers at the station.
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Adif has stated that, although train traffic has been restored, the incident persists at the entrance to the Can Tunis depot, where Renfe stores its rolling stock, which cannot yet leave. The state operator has been affected on 18 trains during the morning, of which eight have had to be cancelled. Renfe has reported that some affected passengers have been reassigned to other trains and that others have been moved through alternative transport. This is the case, for example, of 90 passengers who had to take a train to Valencia and Alicante.
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