TO Renfe Not only are they plagued by recent problems with their new Talgo S-106 high-speed trains, known as Avril. In general terms, the company’s rolling stock is in a state that is not as optimal as the company would like. One fact illustrates the situation well. According to what was acknowledged yesterday in the Upper House by the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Oscar Puentehe 20% of the trains in the public railway operator’s fleet are currently not fit for service. These include: four of the 22 April that Talgo has delivered to date.
According to railway experts, the percentage of trains out of service is quite high. But the situation of Renfe’s fleet in general is far from being the best, as was explained yesterday in the Senate, where the trains were brought to explain the railway chaos experienced in recent weeks.
In a stark account of the situation of the railway company’s trains, the Minister of Transport assured that Much of the current fleet has passed the end of its useful life of 30 or 40 years.which is causing “problems with increased corrective maintenance and difficulties in finding spare parts due to the lack of suppliers and the obsolescence of components.”
Due to his aging situation, the Minister of Transport assured that Maintenance work on these trains becomes complex“with very tight working windows for the needs of carrying out numerous technical updates to keep the vehicles in optimal condition.”
The minister acknowledged that as a result of the combination of age and increasing difficulties in its maintenance, the reliability of Renfe’s rolling stock “In general, the figures are below the established targets and have been declining in recent years, which means that (trains) are more prone to breakdowns.”
Surroundings
Puente said that the situation is especially serious in the case of trains on the services of Surroundingsthe most used. A problem that, he added, aggravates the current scenario of very high demand caused by the free nature of these services. The minister also added that the interventions in various infrastructures that are being carried out “make it difficult for broken-down trains to enter and leave the workshops.” «We are in the perfect storm»he assured.
The lack of resources in suburban trains has been repeatedly denounced by unions in recent months. Arturo Vega, head of the CSIF union at Renfedeclared to LA RAZON at the end of May that There is a lack of investment “in both preventive and corrective maintenance”. For a long time now, preventive maintenance (intended to detect problems that may occur in the network) has been greatly reduced, which prevents many small breakdowns that, when added together, cause many delays.
Vega also said that there is not enough money for rolling stock, something that the drivers agree on. “The maintenance of the trains is somewhat deficient, it is the most deteriorated part,” he added. Alejandro Martínez Treceño, Communications Secretary of the Semaf union.
To solve the problem of obsolescence of this rolling stock, Transport has acquired 309 new commuter trains that Renfe will begin to put on the tracks from 2025. Some experts, however, believe that although it is necessary to renew the rolling stock from time to time, the life of the trains could be extended if enough money were allocated for these purposes.