The theft of almost 600 meters of fiber optic cablewhich has caused the suspension of traffic on the Madrid-Barcelona-Figueres high-speed line, has plunged the stations of the affected line into chaos, especially the one in Barcelona de Sants. The passengers, trapped without an alternative, have shown their anger and indignation. “This is a mousetrap,” protest some of the users who had arrived at half past six in the morning to take the first train and still do not know how they are going to get out of there. Trains are delayed until 1:06 p.m..
“My train left at 9:30 a.m. for Madrid, and when I arrived I found this. They just notified me of the problem by email almost an hour after the scheduled departure time,” protests Mari Paz, a lawyer who travels to the Spanish capital for work. “At the moment we don’t know what will happen or when they will resume service. I have had to notify my company that I will not arrive,” laments the woman.
Bank branch worker, Manuel López, had to go to work this afternoon. “But I’m not going to be able to. We’ve been here since 6:30 a.m. and the only thing we know is that they’re going to try to resume service at 11:30 a.m., according to what they’re telling us,” he says. “All in all, we don’t know what is going to happen because there are many of us and there are also AVEs leaving this afternoon and they are fully booked. We are going to make a claim, not because of the breakdown but because of the lack of information”, concludes.
The lack of an alternativefor example of a coach service to travel at least to the Camp de Tarragona station, to which other companies such as Ouigo are operating, is one of the main complaints of the affected users.
lost reservations
Related news
About to go on vacation, Juan Gómez, retired, found that his train, also scheduled for 9:30 am, did not leave. “A few minutes before arriving at the station I received an email advising that the train was canceled due to technical failure“, comments the man. “I am going to Burgos, but I had to take the train from Madrid to Burgos and I have already missed it. Today my vacation started and I don’t know if I will lose this hotel night due to the breakdown, “he says between resignation and anger.
Carlos Santiago, a 20-year-old student, arrived at the station at half past seven in the morning. “Looks like it’s going to take a long time,” he complains. “I’m coming back from vacation and this afternoon I took another train from Madrid to go to town. I don’t know if I’ll get to take it or if in the end I’ll have to change the ticket to tomorrow, but I still had a reservation for tonight already paid that I’m going to lose, “he says sadly.