Madrid Metro reported that from this Sunday, at 2 p.m., the service of line 1 was reinforced in several stations “with more trains and more staff” after the incident that occurred on Saturday in the tunnel between Atocha and Chamartín.
This reinforcement, which was launched to “deal with the foreseeable larger influx of users”, will be carried out until 10 p.m. this Sunday, and will also be resumed on Monday from the opening of the service, at 6 a.m., until ‘at 10 p.m.
The stations in which the staff will be reinforced will mainly be Atocha and Chamartín. Security personnel will also be reinforced.
In any case, suburban sources recalled that Metro monitors the status of the network in real time and, if necessary, other measures will be taken in circulation to cope with the increase in the number of travelers.
14,000 people affected today
As Renfe confirmed this Sunday, some 14,000 travelers and 48 trains connecting Madrid to eastern Spain were affected by the derailment of the medium-distance train which caused the collapse of the high-speed tunnel.
As explained by General Director of Business and Operations of Renfe, Óscar Gómez Barbero, The derailed train has not yet been able to be removed from the track, so it is unclear what will happen tomorrow.
The Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, has chosen to be able to resume operation of the line “tomorrow”, that is to say this Monday. A much more positive vision than that displayed by its general director a few hours earlier; when he did not dare to give a date.
In an impromptu statement to the media, Minister Puente gave explanations for what happened, assuring that work is already underway to “liberate” one of the two routes of the medium and long distance tunnel that connects Chamartín with Atocha and in which the train was stuck.
“The train broke away while another train was towing it, which does not usually happen. It derailed against the wall of the tunnel. This is a serious fact“, he explained. For this reason, Renfe and Adif are carrying out the appropriate investigations.
