The year begins with a new widespread incident on the train. A computer failure detected early this January 1st in the system of all Talgo Avril trains has led to Renfe to suspend the circulation planned with this model and is relocating all passengers so they can travel on alternative trains. The problem affects all of this model, more than twenty, that the Ministry of Transportation acquired in the spring of last year and that during the first months of operation already gave technical problems and will continue at least this Thursday, when Renfe has prepared a plan to relocate passengers that they were going to travel in these convoys on the high-speed lines that connect Madrid with Galicia, Asturias, Barcelona, Comunitat Valenciana and Murcia.
As reported by Renfe late this Wednesday, it has designed a special operation to relocate “all passengers affected by the breakdown”, which on January 1 affected 28 trains in which more than 14,000 were scheduled to travel. travelers. The railway operator “guarantees” the train service that connects Madrid with Barcelona, Galicia, Asturias, Valencia, Alicante and Murcia, which are the ones that have been seen due to the breakdown of the Avril trains.
The breakdown is due to a failure in the computer system shared by all convoys of this model, manufactured by Talgo, and was detected early in the morning, when Renfe confirmed that they could not depart from their points of origin. Throughout this New Year’s celebration, this has causing delays on four High Speed lines that connect Madrid and the northern and eastern Spain. The Galicia-Madrid and Asturias-Madrid lines register average delays of 60 minutes; The Madrid-Zaragoza-Barcelona AVE line, an average of 20 minutes late, and the Madrid-Valencia-Alicante-Murcia high-speed line, accumulates delays of an average of 30 minutes.
“Due to a computer incident, Talgo Avril trains are not running at the moment”, This morning the Renfe information channel on the X network reported this Wednesday morning about a problem that affects all trains of this model. In a subsequent statement, he specified that the planned circulations for this Wednesday in Talgo Avril were 28, with 14,100 potential travelers.
Due to a computer incident, Talgo Avril trains are not running at this time. Renfe is relocating all travelers to other compositions to guarantee their mobility. Passengers are being informed of all changes that affect their trip.
— InfoRenfe (@Inforenfe) January 1, 2025
As Renfe sources have explained, the damaged trains have not left their origins this Wednesday, because it was detected early in the morning that the computer system that is common to all had “failed” them and that they could not circulate. Talgo has issued a statement to report that there has been a “communication failure between the control system and the battery chargers” of the Avrils.
Since then, technicians from the railway operator and manufacturer, Talgo, and the battery charger for these trains, Ingeteam, work to solve the incident and restore the service “as soon as possible”, as expected by the manufacturer, which as of late Wednesday afternoon was still unable to confirm that the problem would be resolved enough for the Avrils to be put back into service this Thursday, which is practically certain that will not happen.
Passenger relocation
Renfe has been informing passengers of the affected trains all morning and offering them alternatives so they can travel in “other compositions”, add the sources, who at the moment cannot specify the number of affected passengers but do indicate that all have been relocated to travel on other trains.
The operator managed to give passengers alternatives “doubling the capacities of the rest of the trains of High Speed and Long Distance to guarantee the mobility of travelers” and programming timely alternative plans of road transport when relocation to other trains is not possible.
In addition, Renfe offers changes and cancellations without cost to those affected by the incident throughout this Wednesday.
Problems from the beginning
The computer failure in the Talgo Avril trains on January 1 follows in the wake of the problems that this model of trains has caused since they entered service in May 2024 to operate the different brands of Renfe AVE and Renfe AVLO in Spain and France.
Of the 30 convoys that Transportes acquired from Talgo, only 22 have been supplied and From the beginning they had technical problems which were largely responsible for the railway problems last summer and a marked lack of punctuality. The installation of a softwarein addition to a reinforcement of maintenance, is one of the measures that Transport demanded from Talgo at the end of August to improve the service of one of its models, the S-106.
According to the Ministry that directs Oscar Puentehalf of the 22 Avril trains were left out of service sometime in the summer suffered operational problems and Transportes filed two claims against Talgo for “damages” in addition to the fine of 166 million that Renfe imposed due to the delay in deliveries.
As soon as you start operating, the coupling and running-in problems greatly reduced the punctuality of the AVE operated with the Talgo Avril and when they seemed on track, now this general system computer failure to all of them that has prevented them from going out on New Year’s morning.
#Railway #chaos #AVE #due #computer #failure #affects #thousands #people #continue #Thursday
