Does not rule out sabotage
The Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, has estimated the cost of Sunday’s copper theft in Montcada Bifurcació (Barcelona) at 15 million euros – which caused a widespread breakdown in the Rodalies service, coinciding with election day. — and provides for a period of two months to restore normal operation.
Of the 15 million, he said that they will allocate about 4 million to replace the affected assets and about 5 million to the provision of alternative services, and he attributed the rest to lost profits, in a press conference this Monday with the president of Renfe, Raül. Blanco, and the president of Adif, Ángel Contreras.
Puente has defended that “neither Renfe nor Adif have any type of responsibility” in this episode, which he has framed in incidents beyond the control of the managers, and has described both companies as victims.
He has assured that the incidences would “reduce a lot” with the cessation of deliberate actions to damage the service, which in Catalonia he has described as abnormally high: according to the data he has provided, it is the territory of the State in which they are most abundant.
It has estimated that more than 75,000 users were affected on Sunday and almost 400,000 those who use Rodalies daily to get around, of which it has indicated that 30% may have been affected by the alteration of the service this Monday.
The minister has announced that the Government will present a complaint on Tuesday and has regretted that the theft of copper caused “an alteration of the most important democratic event that can occur in a democracy.”
Puente has maintained that the theft “points in a very clear direction” because he believes that the amount of cable stolen has practically no great value on the black market and has been in a point that is difficult to access.
“I do not claim sabotage, but I cannot rule it out,” he maintained, and estimated the value of the stolen copper between 200 and 500 euros – a bit high, he said – taking into account that, for one On the one hand, the value of the material is about six euros per kilo and that in one meter of cable there can be at most two kilos and, on the other hand, that on the black market the price drops substantially.
He has reproached the Mossos d’Esquadra for, in his opinion, ruling out sabotage without promoting the pertinent investigation and has attributed to them responsibilities in matters of vandalism, theft and security of people, areas in which he has qualified the role of Adif and Renfe as complementary and subordinate.
At around 3:30 in the morning, the Montcada Bifurcació substation suffered a “high intensity” short circuit due to a cable cut, which later appeared on a metal element of the security facilities, which, in turn, caused a surge.
HORSE OF BATTLE
The minister has regretted that “infrastructures have become a workhorse in this country in which political use is made” and has reproached those responsible for the Generalitat for attributing responsibility for the incident to Renfe and Adif when –verbatim — they knew perfectly well that the responsibility was not on them.
He has also accused the PP and Vox of saying that this “was a CDR thing and that, well, it was almost the independence movement behind it”, and has explained that he chose not to appear on Sunday to avoid contributing to a debate that sees out of place.
Faced with this situation, he has asked to react “all together” to these actions and reject them, instead of parties and administrations trying to profit from them.
He has defended that “in no case did the information fail”, although he has agreed that there is room for improvement in the matter and that the Government is working on it and, along these lines, Blanco has pointed out the incorporation of 46 professionals to the service of information while the incident lasts.
TRANSFER AND FINANCING
The minister has separated the incidents in the Rodalies service from the investment made by the Government in the service: “There is nothing underfunding, we do nothing other than invest,” he assured.
“The service may already be very well funded, and if these actions continue to be repeated, we will continue to have the same number of incidents. I do not understand the correlation,” he warned.
He has also disassociated the incidence of the transfer of Rodalies to the Generalitat — “that should have no relation,” he said –, he has assured that the process has just begun, that it is –verbatim– tremendously complex and that it will take a while.
