Madrid, March 27 (EFE).- The Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, assured this Friday that the piece of track that broke in the accident in Adamuz (Córdoba), which cost the lives of 46 people, has not yet been sent to the laboratory for analysis.
In a forum organized by eldiario.es, Puente explained that the investigation of the case is in the hands of the Railway Accident Investigation Commission (CIAF) and the justice system, so the matter is not in his hands, but he has advanced that the piece is not yet being analyzed.
However, he stressed that the accident is not related to the investment in the maintenance of the infrastructure, because the affected lane had just been renovated.
Investment in security “is never too much” and investing more in maintenance “is always plausible.” “It is an acceptable and healthy debate but always trying to separate it from the accident.”
Puente has added that in maintenance there have been “decades of delay” in investments, which the current Government is correcting, not only in railways, but also in the road network, where it has estimated the conservation deficit at 5,000 million euros, which in recent years “is being wiped out.”
The weaknesses of the system are found, he added, in the transport of goods by road, whose share does not reach 4% and must reach 10% in 2030, with a longer-term objective of 17% of the European Union average.
In this area, the main challenge is the connection with the ports, because almost 50% of goods move through this route, so a link between the railway system and the ports is necessary, in addition to the network of logistics terminals, which consists of six link nodes.
Also in urban transport, Spain is “in clear inferiority” compared to Europe.
The minister has defended that the debate around the suspension of the high speed train between Madrid and Malaga “is a clear example that transport is a weapon” in the political field.
He explained that what happened in the Malaga town of Álora, where a slope collapsed due to the heavy rains in January and February, preventing the circulation of trains, is “the same thing that happens on 33 Andalusian regional and local roads, which at this time remain closed.”
“I don’t know what the Board is doing to fix that, but Adif works 24 hours a day with 23 machines and 75 workers, because the slope must be completely dismantled.”
He has considered the behavior of “serious people” such as the mayor of Malaga, Francisco de la Torre (PP), “disappointing” because the city council of that town has asked for his resignation due to the suspension of the high-speed service with Madrid.
“I have no plans to resign,” Puente said. “If the president had been tempted to fire me, in the last 24 hours he would have had it easy; but it doesn’t seem like that was his intention.” EFE
