Sunday, May 4, 2025
| Updated 05/05/2025 01: 30h.
«We have made about 25 minutes of journey since we have left Madrid and the catenary has given a spark and the train has suddenly stopped. We are standing in the middle of nowhere and waiting for them to change our train ». This was Hector’s testimony a passenger from the Madrid-Málaga AVE that left at 20.55 atocha and had to arrive before midnight to the capital. But a “serious act of sabotage”, in the words of the minister of Transportation and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, prevented it. It was one of the thousands of travelers who had a bitter return home on Sunday. Those who could return. Four cable robberies in different points of the Madrid-Seville high speed caused that more than 6,000 passengers stay without transport, well when staying inside the vehicles themselves or in the stations, given the impossibility of operating many journeys.
“We have been told that another train will come, but we don’t know time, we don’t have much more information,” Hector said last night from one of those trains standing on the road. According to Renfe data, there were more than 6,300 passengers affected throughout Spain, in 21 paralyzed trains or with delays in the lines, several of them with exit or destination in Malaga. Keep in mind that the sabotage occurred on a Sunday at the end of May Puente, on a day in which thousands of people were traveling back to their homes after the weekend.
At the close of this edition, Adif’s maintenance equipment tried to resolve the incidence once the rail service was finished. In social networks, Renfe said that all trains were going to reach their destination, although some in the morning, “so it will not be necessary alternative transport.” “We regret the inconvenience produced by this cable theft and we appreciate patience and understanding,” the company wrote in X.
List of affected trains
The list of affected trains facilitated by the Government was as follows: AVE Sevilla SJ 16:53 – Valencia JS 21:30, Alvia Huelva 16:05 – Madrid Pa 20:13, Avant Puertollano 19:05 – Madrid Pa 20:27, Madrid Pa 19:00 – Sevilla Sj 21:37, Ave Sevilla 17:46 – Madrid 20:40, Ave Murcia 15:32 – Málaga 22:26, Alvia Cádiz 16:15 – Madrid Pa 20:55, Alvia Algeciras 15:52 – Madrid Pa 21:20, Ave Madrid 20:00 – Granada 23:23, Avant Madrid 20:10 – Puertollano 21:32, Avlo Sevilla 18:55 – Madrid 21:52, Malaga 18:50 – Madrid 21:59, Madrid 20:35 – Malaga 23:35, Ave Sevilla 19:33 22:13, Interity Sevilla 19:25 – Madrid 22:23, Ave Madrid 21:05 – Sevilla 23:57, Ave Madrid 21:05 – Sevilla 23:57, Avant 21:32 – Madrid 22:54, Ave Málaga 20:05 – Madrid 23:04, Avlo Sevilla 20:54 – Madrid 23:50 and Madrid 22:15 – Puertollano 23:37.
The Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Oscar Puente, explained that the Civil Guard is already investigating these facts that he considers “very serious.” There are four cable robberies at different points within a radius of 10 kilometers (between the municipal terms of the Yebenes and Manzaneque). «The affectation to the trains that are still to circulate will be very serious. And we will barely have two hours since we finish today to repair it, ”said the minister.
Delays in the departures planned for this Monday
The president of RENFE, Álvaro Fernández Heredia, announced that the company will delay this Monday the departures of the high-speed trains of the Madrid-Sevilla and Madrid-Toledo line, in both ways, to facilitate repair work in the early morning. Heredia explained that Renfe has annulled the last high-speed trains outings of the Madrid Atocha-Almudena Puerta station “to facilitate the arrivals of the accumulated trains” after the theft of cable. The president of RENFE has specified that, in addition to the problem of cable, an Iryo train “has had a hook in the catenary and its transford, trailer and the restitution of the catenary is necessary to be able to restore the circulation.”
Renfe is preparing special trains to take people today whose exits have been canceled or delayed and will be reported by SMS and mail message to travelers
“We are strengthening information, trying to provide time forecasts, distributing food and drink, reinforcing stations personnel and working to mobilize the greatest number of trains in these conditions of degraded circulation,” explained the president of Renfe, Álvaro Fernández Heredia.
For his part, the president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juanma Moreno, asked the Government to offer alternatives to passengers traveling in the affected trains and give “higher priority to resolve this situation on such important dates.”
