Entire short- and medium-distance train network run by Spanish Government in Catalonia collapses
There has been railway chaos throughout Catalonia due to a major failure in the control centre of the IT system of the network run by Adif and operated by Renfe, two public companies both owned and managed by the Spanish Government. This incident is to be added to a long list of problems in this network during the last decade due to a lack of investment by the Spanish Government. All the short- and medium-distance trains in Catalonia using Adif's network stopped completely between 6.30 am and 7.45 am, affecting some 200 trains and 80,000 people at the start of rush hour. Trains started to work again with more than a 1 hour delay and took the entire morning to gradually recover the accumulated delay, but parallel services have also been affected, such as the High-Speed network, where a train was stuck for 2 hours in a tunnel. The Catalan Government considers the situation "unacceptable" and demands immediate investment, or it will request the transfer of the infrastructure.