21. feb. 2023 14:42 – Updated 21 Feb. 2023 14:43
Spain’s transport minister and the head of the state railway company are resigning after it became clear that trains that are too wide for the tunnels have been ordered.
Anger has risen in Spain after the railway scandal was revealed in January, writes The Guardian. Two railway executives were fired last month, but that was not enough to appease critics. On Monday, Transport Minister Isabel Pardo de Vera and CEO Isaias Taboas of the state railway company Renfe announced their resignations.
Renfe has ordered tens of trains for the network of narrow-gauge lines and medium-distance sections in northern Spain. This is part of an update of the equipment being driven in the provinces of Asturias and Cantabria. The problem is that several of the trains that have been ordered are too wide to run in the tunnels along the lines they will run on.
Cantabria’s political leader Miguel Angel Revilla says the project is a mistake and requires swift action. His colleague Adrian Barbon in Asturias says he is “astonished, angry and disappointed” by what has happened.
The new trains are part of a contract worth 258 million euros, which currently corresponds to just over NOK 2.8 billion. The government has admittedly stressed that the mistake was discovered before any of the trains were built and that “not a euro of the Spaniards’ money has been wasted”.
