In June, with the first wave of breakdowns and incidents in rail transport, a machinist prophesied TODAY: «Summer is going to be tremendous. More problems will come because it has to happen ». And it has happened. Now, in one of the periods of the year, mid-August, with more movement of people. The experts consulted by this newspaper are clear about the diagnosis, why it has happened again. The absence of continuous maintenance of the trains, the state of the tracks or the fact that convoys are circulating at a certain age and many kilometers behind them form a perfect storm to explain this reality.
«The conventional train dies and the high speed does not arrive. We are finished », remarks Ángel Caballero, a railroad man with 42 and a half years of experience and who is now fighting for this means of transportation through the Extremaduran Friends of the Railroad Association. “We are tired. There are not enough trains for periodic in-depth reviews. Nor staff for the arrangements. The metaphor for how the train is is the ruined workshop that is in Badajoz, “adds Miguel Fuentes, with 35 years of work in the sector and spokesperson for CC OO on the matter.
Caballero and Fuentes are pessimistic about the future of the train (“there is no political will, they lie to you and some of them applaud them on top of this,” criticizes the former), but they appreciate that the mobilization has finally appeared in Extremadura. «In something we have advanced. I don’t know how far it will go. I was working in Villaverde Bajo, near Fuenlabrada, and thanks to …
