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Spain train chief quits over order of too wide trains

February 20, 2023

The country's secretary of state for transport has also stepped down after the ordering commuter trains that were too wide to fit through some tunnels in the north of the country.

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A regional train in Fonciello, Spain
Trains too wide for the tunnels they must traverse have forced a procurement delay and at least four resignations over the errorImage: picture alliance / Pacific Press

The chief of Spain's state rail operator Renfe and the country's secretary of state for transport resigned on Monday following an outcry over the procurement of trains too wide to fit through tunnels.

The resignations of Isaias Taboas, who has headed Renfe since June 2018, and Isabel Pardo brings the total number of people to lose their jobs over the scandal to four.

The resignations were announced shortly before the Minister of Transport, Raquel Sanchez, met on Monday with the presidents of the northern regions of Asturias and Cantabria to explain how the errors in the measurements occurred.

The error will cause a delay in the manufacturing process of two years.

Asturias and Cantabria among regions affected

Earlier this month, an announcement was made that the production of 31 metric gauge trains worth €258 million ($275 million) awarded by Renfe to the company CAF in 2020 was going to be delayed due to a design issue.

The trains were supposed to renew the fleet of commuter and medium-distance services in several regions, such as Asturias and Cantabria in the north of the country.

However, in March 2021, CAF realized that the dimensions it provided for the trains were not correct,  bringing construction to a halt as the carriages would have been too wide for some tunnels.

The head of the regional government of Cantabria, Miguel Angel Revilla, had described it as a "monumentally botched job" and called on those responsible to step down.

Both Spain's central government and Renfe have said they noticed the error in good time and no money had been wasted.

Put together in the 19th century, the rail network in northern Spain crosses a mountainous landscape and it has varying tunnel sizes that do not adhere to standard modern measurements.

jsi/ar (AFP, AP, EFE)