An incident, which occurred early in the morning in some works carried out at night in the infrastructure of the south entrance of the Atocha station, has been affecting all the trains that circulate on that section with delays or rescheduling all morning. of service, the Railway Infrastructure Administrator (Adif) and the Cercanías Madrid service have reported.
The problem, with no foreseeable resolution, is “generalized” and affects all Atocha train circulation to the south, including the Méndez Álvaro and Villaverde stations.
Hundreds of people are being affected by this breakdown, which adds to a morning of rain on the roads of Madrid.
As detailed to this newspaper by a Renfe spokesperson, the breakdown occurred at 1:55 a.m. and consists of "the breakage of a signaling cable at the southern entrance of Atocha-Cercanías", within the framework of the works being carried out by Adif in the High Speed infrastructure (AVE).
An Adif spokesperson added that these works are in preparation for the expansion of the AVE and that they had been carried out at night from last day 5 until just this Friday so as not to affect traffic.
Due to the cable break, “the signaling does not work in the entire southern section.”
The problem is affecting all lines coming from the south, C3, C4a, C4b and C5, which present either delays or changes in the usual service.
An incident, caused by infrastructure works at the southern entrance of Atocha, affects the trains that circulate on that route with delays or service rescheduling.
— Cercanías Madrid (@CercaniasMadrid) March 8, 2024
Specifically, the trains that circulate between Atocha and Méndez Álvaro and between Atocha and Villaverde Bajo are suffering severe
delays, while the convoys originating in Alcobendas-San Sebastián de los Reyes end their journey in Chamartín, as reported by the Adif spokesperson. .
Those from Colmenar do make the entire journey to Parla, but “with delays because they have to be authorized one by one.”
Likewise, the trains that run between Parla and Atocha end in Villaverde Alto and line C5, which runs between Móstoles-Fuenlabrada/Humanes, has a frequency of one train every 30 minutes and does not leave Fuenlabrada.
Renfe is warning travelers to use alternative means of transportation.
To absorb the increase in passengers, Madrid Metro has reinforced L-1 (Pinar de Chamartín-Valdecarros) and L-3 (Villaverde Alto-Moncloa).
The Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, explained on social networks: “The failure occurred completely in all the installation cables during the drilling of a pile, the repair work involves manual splicing and ringing of all the cables. cables, it is laborious.”
The minister specified that "in the works on tracks 16 and 17 that are being carried out at the Atocha station, a machine has broken a cable at 1.55 at the height of detour 109."
In his message, published minutes before 9:00, the minister assured that the forecast was for it to be resolved at 10:00.
However, at 11:15 the problems continue and a Cercanías spokesperson has indicated to this newspaper that "there is no forecast of the time at which it can be solved."
The spokesperson stressed that Adif technicians “have been working on resolving the incident since it occurred” and that it is “quite complicated.”
User complaints echo in X. “With today's Atocha delays, I don't know if they validate Survivors or
The Walking Dead
.
Two train changes, half a metro line 3 and two stops on line 5 later, I'm on the job.
Thank goodness it's Friday," laments one user, Cris.
Cercanías offers more information on the web and on networks at @CercaniasAvisos.
Cercanías Madrid: The trains that circulate between Atocha and Méndez Álvaro are registering delays due to an incident that affects the signaling.
We are working to solve it as soon as possible.
— INFOAdif (@InfoAdif) March 8, 2024
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