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Spain’s long-anticipated summer holiday season got off to a stressful start this week, with thousands of passengers caught in delays across rail and air networks.

 

On Monday night, a power line failure near La Sagra in Toledo brought rail traffic between Madrid and Andalusia to a grinding halt. The incident triggered a cascading set of delays and cancellations, leaving many passengers stranded for hours or, in one case, the entire night.

 

One of the worst-hit trains was an AVE high-speed service to Málaga, which departed Madrid’s Atocha station at 7.35pm on Monday June 30. Just 20 minutes into the journey, it came to an abrupt stop, and nearly 300 passengers, including children and elderly travellers, were left without air conditioning, food or clear information for more than 12 hours.

 

Lawyer Manuel Jiménez Baras, who was travelling with his three young children, said, “My little daughter asked me: ‘Daddy, please don’t put me on a train again in my life’.” He described the conditions as “unbearable” and demonstrating “absolute incompetence” and is now preparing legal action against Renfe, claiming “illegal detention”.

 

Renfe later explained that the train was stranded due to overhead cable damage caused by another train travelling from Toledo to Madrid. While most other affected trains resumed movement shortly after 9.45pm on Monday, the Málaga-bound service remained stuck overnight, with passengers only finally moved on Tuesday morning at around 9am.

 

Other rail services between Madrid and Seville, Cádiz, Granada, Huelva and Ciudad Real were also disrupted, affecting long-distance and medium-distance trains. No departures to the south ran from Atocha for much of Tuesday morning, although services were gradually restored by midday.

 

Meanwhile, those flying out of Madrid-Barajas Airport on Wednesday July 2 faced a new round of travel headaches. A temporary IT failure affecting the Policía Nacional’s passport control systems caused massively long queues in Terminal 4 and its satellite terminal. Many travellers missed their flights, with the Guardia Civil stepping in to calm tensions among the crowds.

 

Although the issue was resolved by around 3.00pm, it coincided with one of the busiest periods of the day and left hundreds of passengers frustrated. Aena, the airport operator, reported that 1,268 flights were scheduled for the day and advised travellers to arrive well in advance due to the peak holiday period.

 

Whether by rail or in the air, Spain’s early summer travellers have certainly been put to the test this week... and it’s only the beginning of the season.

 

 

Image: Vladimir Shevtsov/Pexels