The Mayor of Madrid accuses the Minister of Transport of being "incompetent" and "Twitter minister" after the fire in an AVE that left 12,979 travellers affected during the October 12 holiday.
The Mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, has launched a tirade this Tuesday against the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, for his handling of the fire in an AVE that interrupted the Madrid-Barcelona line during the return operation of the October 12 holiday. From the grounds of the Campamento operation, the PP leader has labelled him as "incompetent" and "Twitter minister", according to elconstitucional.es.
"There are still delays and there is still a Twitter minister who dedicates himself to insulting on Twitter. We have normalised that we pay a minister to be on Twitter and not to solve problems," Almeida stated. The mayor added that when Puente leaves the Government, "we will not miss him."
I believe that this type of person is surplus to politics
The mayor also accused Puente of being "an incompetence of a calibre not previously seen in mobility." He demanded an apology for his statement that the train is experiencing the best moment in its history and mentioned both the Adamuz accident and the problems with Cercanías. Regarding the latter service, he claims it is the public transport that has recovered the least passengers since the pandemic.
The attack comes amid the pre-campaign for the general elections on November 29. On January 27, in the City Council Plenary, Almeida had already accused the PSOE of having put "first a brothel keeper and then a Twitter user" at the head of Transport, in a speech directed at the municipal socialist spokesperson, Reyes Maroto. So far, no direct response from Puente to the mayor's remarks on Tuesday has been located.
The fire occurred on Monday, around 16:05, near Ricla, in Zaragoza. The fire broke out in the tail cabin of an AVE covering the Madrid-Figueres route. The 283 passengers were evacuated without any injuries reported, according to Renfe.
The balance released by the operator estimates the impact on 33 trains and 12,979 travellers, on a day of return from the holiday that left services halted and departures blocked. Circulation began to recover on Monday night, after the fire was extinguished and the infrastructure was checked. During the morning of this Tuesday, delays persisted, with traffic on a single track between Ricla and Plasencia de Jalón and a speed limit of 80 kilometres per hour on the affected stretch. The consequences of the interruption also reached connections with Navarra and La Rioja.
The Deputy General Director of Renfe, Sergio Bueno, defended that the train was "scrupulously complying with its inspections in time and form." In his statements to the media, he admitted that he did not know the train's manufacturing date and did not detail its latest inspections, although he assured that the company’s material remains in accordance with the established procedures.
Renfe has apologised to the affected passengers and announced an investigation to clarify what happened. In the statement released after the incident, the company explained that it did not know the causes of the fire.
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