Hundreds of Extremadurans surround the Congress on Extremadura Day: "We want a decent train that is punctual"

A group of people hold a banner during a rally for a "dignified" train for Extremadura, in front of the Congress of Deputies.Ricardo Rubio (Europa Press)

The Day of Extremadura has had its echo in Madrid.

Hundreds of people from Extremadura have taken different trains from Badajoz, Cáceres, Plasencia and Mérida on their holiday to demand, once again, a decent train for the region.

The idea has come from different civil society associations, which United We Can and PP have also joined, with their spokespersons at the helm.

A hundred Extremadurans crowded into the Atocha station around twelve noon, the expected time of arrival.

The railway, however, was about 15 minutes late.

All the passengers, most of them with the flags of the region (green, white and black) and different banners (“Dignified train now”, “we demand the railway mesh that we deserve”) have chanted in unison: “A decent train for Extremadura”.

The regional president, Guillermo Fernández Vara (PSOE),

A few hours before, he was present at the Roman Theater in Mérida, where he presented the medals for the Day of Extremadura.

Extremaduran writer Luis Landero took the floor.

He addressed his countrymen, surrounded by the great personalities of the region.

"Dear politicians, cordially, you are scoundrels," Landero said.

"Extremadura is still very far away, it is the Far West, and that distance is, in truth, an opprobrium, a humiliation and a mockery."

Hours earlier, a new train had arrived in Madrid more than 90 minutes late.

Many of the protesters this Thursday in Madrid have remembered his words.

"We only have one train to come to Madrid with very few schedules," said Juan María Andreo, 57, during the march to the Congress of Deputies.

“When I was little I went from Extremadura to the north and south of Spain, this doesn't happen anymore.

We don't need an AVE, we need a train with a minimum schedule and one that is punctual”.

For a couple of hours, the nearly 300 people from Extremadura ―with a great presence of popular mayors from the region, who were later joined by different deputies from Ciudadanos and PP, such as Inés Arrimadas, Edmundo Bal, or the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida―, have chanted in favor of railway improvements.

The Extremaduran journalists Isabel Gemio and Daniel Domínguez have read a manifesto around two in the afternoon, where they have emphasized the loneliness of the region in terms of railway infrastructures.

“Extremadura is no longer deceived.

Extremadurans want this act of being fed up to become an act of vindication.

We don't have to inaugurate anything until it's finished."

The new Extremaduran train

The new Extremaduran train was inaugurated on July 18 with the presence of King Felipe VI in the region.

However, during its first seven days it did not start off on the right foot.

To understand how the start-up of the new high-performance train has been derailed in the first seven days, just look at the newspaper library.

On June 17, the Minister of Transport, Raquel Sánchez, inaugurated the train from Plasencia to Badajoz for the first time.

A month later, the railway was reopened with the presence of Sánchez and Felipe VI, but starting in Cáceres.

Moreover, it no longer stops in Plasencia.

The reason is that this way you arrive in Madrid earlier.

The reality is that the 45,000 inhabitants of the fourth largest city in the region are disconnected from this new service.

“I found out from the press after being on the inauguration train”,

The mayor, Fernando Pizarro (PP) told this newspaper by phone last July.

“And, to make matters worse, they have taken away 50% of the trains with Madrid.

If before the pandemic there were 26 in the capital, now we only have 13.

A group of protesters gets on the Extremaduran train at the Badajoz station to complete the Badajoz - Madrid route and join the concentration called in Madrid for a worthy train. ROBERTO PALOMO

However, the main shortcomings of this new service, which made its first trip this Thursday, are the routes on which it circulates.

The train will continue to cross Iberian gauge tracks.

These lines only work in Spain and Portugal and, therefore, do not allow the circulation of AVE trains.

The trains that will circulate will not be new either, they have been in circulation throughout the country for 15 years, according to sources from the Ministry of Public Works.

Despite the new train, there is still no double track for the entire route.

In this community of more than a million inhabitants in the southwest of Spain there is only one lane and, therefore, at some point in the journey the train that goes up and the one that goes down crosses, and one of the two has to stop at some station so that no accident occurs.

A fact that continues to cause numerous delays, bus trips and cancellations.

In addition, together with Murcia, it is the only region that does not yet have electrified lines—more quality service—.

The demand for improvements to the train reached such a point that nearly 40,000 people from Extremadura protested in the Plaza de España in Madrid on November 18, 2017, shouting “dignified train now”.

An unprecedented disconnect

Until 2018, Extremadura was the only region in Spain that did not have long-distance railways.

There was also no Alvia: trains that can travel up to 250 kilometers per hour, with more comfortable seats, with a cafeteria, with a radio, with headphones, with televisions: small pleasures that all users who make journeys of more than five hours opted for, except these.

Today, yes, they already choose, but only in a part of Extremadura and with an average speed that does not even remotely reach 120 kilometers per hour on average.

The first isolation suffered by this region happened on New Year's Eve 1984. That day Renfe closed the Plasencia-Salamanca-Astorga line.

It forever disconnected the community from the north of Spain.

Since then, if an Extremaduran wants to go to Salamanca by train, for example, he has to do it through Madrid.

Since June 2015 these lanes are being dismantled to form a greenway: only for walkers and cyclists.

Final goodbye to the utopian

of this section, despite the fact that different academic studies have recommended it again.

The second abandonment occurred in 2012. After 75 years, the Madrid-Lisbon train, known as Lusitania, stopped working.

Today, the only international connection between Spain and Portugal joins the cities of Vigo and Porto.

Traveling between the two capitals has a delay of 11 hours and four trains.

And the third regional abandonment in Extremadura has been developed since the year 2000 with the promise of high speed.

22 years ago, Spain and Portugal agreed that the AVE would pass through the Extremaduran countryside.

"There will be an AVE", said Aznar (PP) in 2002. "Top priority", assured the then Minister of Public Works, Magdalena Álvarez (PSOE) in 2007. 2012 arrived and former president Monago (PP) coined the term fast train in replacement of the AVE.

And 2013 came and the former minister of the branch, Ana Pastor, assured that it would be ready for 2015. Then for 2016.

Subscribe here