IS IT THE AGE OF THE TRAINS?

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As the new high speed train service between Madrid and Alicante is now firmly settled into the normal travel routine of the country, we can look back on the first two weeks of operations, following the launch which coincided with one of the biggest fiestas in the Alicante calendar.

We have already noted that although the infrastructure of the line is new, as well as being expandable in the future to increase the speed between the two key cities, the trains are less than state of the art vehicles.

It could be argued that there will always be an element of risk of delay for a new service such as this, but as many of the trains are over 20 years old, delays due to breakdowns are inevitable.

In the first twelve days of operation, a period of two weeks taking the inauguration trips out of the equation, 45,000 passengers were carried on 223 trains, of which 800 passengers have been severely delayed by three major failures.

In terms of percentages, 1.77% of passengers have been delayed by breakdowns of 1.34% of trains on the route.

Of course, statistics mean very little to those who endured delays of over an hour, in searing temperatures, as on train was stranded at Albacete due to a “technical failure”. But the embarrassment of the first failure occurred on the very first day, the day after the inauguration, followed by another on the 30th of June in which 354 passengers were delayed due to a problem with the overhead power supply.

However, the good news is, Renfe, the train operator, states that all customers affected by these three faults will be refunded the full amount of their ticket, and reassured us that they were transferred to their destination “as quickly as possible”, perhaps proving that this might be the age of the train, but problems will always occur when legacy stock meets futuristic plans.

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