ANTEQUERA – Experts, authorities and the public, who see how taxpayers’ money is sometimes horribly wasted, had just recovered from the major train blunder with trains that did not fit through northern Spanish tunnels, now that they have to deal with another shock.
The new high-speed station in Antequera, inaugurated in January, has four tracks for high-speed trains and two with conventional track. The medium-distance trains from Bobadilla run on the conventional track. It is a single track line that splits a few meters after reaching the new station. This Friday, however, the CGT union denounced a “terrible calculation error”: there appears to be a lack of space to park two conventional gauge trains at the same time.
Related post: Blunder: Spanish railway company makes trains that do not fit through tunnels
Another train blunder in Spain
“We can classify it as the ‘Antequeragate’! And it is another scandal like the trains that cannot fit through the tunnels of Cantabria,” said Miguel Montenegro, general secretary of CGT Andalucía. “There is not enough track width to allow two trains to be at the station at the same time. That’s probably why the Media Distancia trains aren’t arriving yet. The measurements are taken as if they were international gauges, not the 1.66 metres that is the national Iberian gauge. Consequently, there is no space between the tracks and trains can be parked at the same time,” he adds.
Cercanias Ronda-Antequera
CGT Andalucía has asked questions about this to the Antequera City Council. Furthermore, the rail would connect Antequera to Ronda, using the existing infrastructure. The city would also be connected via Bobadilla with the Cercanías (short distance trains) in Málaga.
Name change
Another claim from CGT concerns the name change of the new high-speed station. It should refer to important sights in and around the city such as the dolmens, El Torcal or Peña de los Enamorados. This should avoid confusion among passengers who mistakenly get off at the Antequera Santa-Ana station. Instead, they should be at the Antequera AV station, as it is now officially called.
They also reclaimed the opening of the underground pedestrian access that passes under the old railway lines and which is still closed a month later, forcing users to walk along the Córdoba highway or the platforms and tracks of the old disused railway line to cross.
