Months of rail chaos culminated Friday with the shutdown of traffic Angel ContrerasPresident of ADIF, on behalf of the Minister of Transport, Oscar Bridge.
Transports has denied that his dismissal is related to the Koldo case, even though Contreras was forced to appear before the Senate last June to explain his ties to the leader of the plot. And despite the fact that the summary contains indications that could link him to businessmen.
The trigger for the dismissal of the president of Adif, promoted to this position by Puente himself in December 2023 to replace Maria Luisa Dominguezwas the derailment of a train at Sants, which left thousands of passengers stranded in the Barcelona station and worsened the crisis in the Spanish rail network.
But the railway chaos does not have a single culprit. Lack of investment, the arrival of companies low cost and the problematic Talgo engaged by Mariano Rajoy have undoubtedly contributed to the current crisis.
Just as important as these factors was the battle between clans experienced at the Ministry of Transport. The main one was the one surrounding Jose BlancoMinister of Development between 2009 and 2011, and whose influence within the ministry should have been reduced to a minimum with the appointment of Jose Luis Abalos as Minister, first of Development (2018-2020) then of Transport (2020-2021).
But Abalos, who arrived at the ministry without a sufficient team and who should have done without those responsible for the mismanagement of previous years, recovered and promoted several members of José Blanco’s clanthus inheriting the management vices they had acquired throughout their years in Development.
Oscar Puente has only been the Minister of Transport for ten months and he cannot be blamed for the poor state of the railway infrastructure. Puente, for example, commissioned the audit that attempted to delimit the scope of the Koldo affair.
He also reacted quickly by firing Contreras and the undersecretary of transportation, Jesus Manuel Gomezand to the ADIF chief of staff, Michaux Miranda for “loss of confidence” following the publication of the aforementioned audit.
But there is no denying that Contreras’ appointment was his decision and that it reflects a clear error of judgment.
Months of delays, outages, crowds and copper thefts have occurred in recent months to the point of making headlines in every national media outlet.
Incidents that add to the management errors of recent years, such as the case of the Cantabrian and Asturian trains that were unable to pass through the tunnels and which caused the resignation of the president of Renfe, Isaiah Taboasand the Secretary of State for Transport, Isabel Pardo de Vera.
There is no denying that Adif has been trying to solve this problem for some time. problems arising from the lack of investment in the years following the 2008 crisis. For example, there are the works in Chamartín, in Madrid, which are causing many problems for high-speed traffic and Cercanías in the region.
But it is also true that rail network officials misjudged the impact of the arrival of the operators. low cost and the consequences of the increase in the number of passengers and traffic that this has brought. Consequences that will be aggravated when liberalisation affects, as expected, suburban trains.
The inefficiency of political and technical leaders who have not assumed their responsibilities, corruption within Transport and clan struggles have led, together with the aforementioned investment and maintenance deficits, to the current situation of our railway network.
If this government’s commitment to public transport is real, Increased investment and professionalization of ADIF management are imperative.
