{"id":48227,"date":"2025-04-29T13:10:28","date_gmt":"2025-04-29T17:10:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/without-power-spains-trains-were-immobilized-three-travelers-shared-their-tales\/29\/04\/2025\/"},"modified":"2025-04-29T13:10:28","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T17:10:28","slug":"without-power-spains-trains-were-immobilized-three-travelers-shared-their-tales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/without-power-spains-trains-were-immobilized-three-travelers-shared-their-tales\/29\/04\/2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Without power, Spain’s trains were immobilized. Three travelers shared their tales"},"content":{"rendered":"

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MADRID (AP) \u2014 The blackout that paralyzed the Iberian Peninsula<\/a> for most of Monday had an especially fierce impact on high-speed trains that run across Spain.<\/p>\n

Here are accounts from three affected passengers:<\/p>\n

Trapped in a tunnel<\/p>\n

\u00c1lvaro Agust\u00edn had spent the weekend in Gij\u00f3n, his hometown, and was traveling back to Valencia, where he works as a doctor.<\/p>\n

Sometime after departing the northern Spanish city, his train entered a tunnel \u2014 and came to a halt. Agust\u00edn, 26, assumed it would be a brief delay, as is sometimes the case on this six-hour journey he knows well. He waited, then waited more. Two hours passed without any news.<\/p>\n

Finally, train staff informed passengers of a power supply problem and said they didn’t know when it would be resolved. An hour later, an emergency unit of soldiers arrived to distribute water and share the news of a blackout across Spain and Portugal. They, too, said they had no idea when power would be restored.<\/p>\n

Eventually, the bathroom’s toilet clogged, its odor seeping out into the car and forcing passengers to hold their shirts over their noses. Then the train\u2019s emergency batteries ran out, plunging Agust\u00edn’s car into darkness. There wasn’t even the light from cell phone screens, as people sought to conserve their precious power.<\/p>\n

\u201cOutside, even though they didn\u2019t have internet, they were in the sun, while we were in the dark without knowing what was happening,\u201d Agust\u00edn said on Tuesday, after returning home to Gij\u00f3n in the early hours of the morning.<\/p>\n

Most passengers remained calm. Some even laughed and started singing to pass the time. But a 15-year-old girl in his car began suffering an anxiety attack. Agust\u00edn removed his stethoscope to examine her. Then he talked to her, giving her advice to help her control her breathing and calmed her down.<\/p>\n

Nine hours after Agust\u00edn’s train stopped, an auxiliary locomotive arrived to passengers’ rescue, and took them to the nearest city.<\/p>\n

Waiting in Barcelona<\/p>\n

When Paquita Gonz\u00e1lez, 53, arrived Monday at Barcelona’s main train station, service had already been suspended. Hoping the disruption would be brief, she stayed put, expecting to catch another train to her home in Cadiz, in the south of the country.<\/p>\n

Hours later, and nothing had changed. Gonz\u00e1lez lay on the terminal’s floor through the night, but was too stressed and nervous to doze off.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe night was very hard, I\u2019m old,\u201d she said the next morning. \u201cThere were small children, all trying to sleep on the bare floor.\u201d<\/p>\n

As of noon on Tuesday, she was exhausted and still waiting for a spot on a train \u2014 alongside hundreds of other frustrated travelers trying to reach their destinations.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother day waiting,\u201d Gonz\u00e1lez said through a rush of tears. \u201cI\u2019ve been here for more than 15 hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Card games and solidarity<\/p>\n

Erika S\u00e1nchez was on her way to Madrid on a high-speed train from Barcelona when her partner messaged her around 12:30 p.m. about \u201csomething strange\u201d at work: colleagues all over Spain were losing power.<\/p>\n

Shortly afterwards, her train stopped \u201cin the middle of nowhere\u201d \u2014 forest all around, but no town in sight, she said.<\/p>\n

The conductor announced that he would open the doors to let air circulate and that he was going to conserve battery power by turning off the train.<\/p>\n

Several hours went by. S\u00e1nchez played cards with her seat neighbors and chatted with elderly women, who said the situation reminded them of the difficult times they endured in their youth. Others shared power banks and what little food they had around with the group.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people working on the train did a pretty good job and tried to distribute food and water to everyone,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Six hours later, the train began moving and the passengers cheered. They arrived at a station in Guadalajara, 70 kilometers (44 miles) south of Madrid, where another train had also been diverted. Inside a nearby gymnasium, volunteers provided food for some of the 800 passengers, many of whom prepared to spend the night on the floor.<\/p>\n

S\u00e1nchez prepared to do the same, until a young woman offered to drive her to Madrid. At 3 a.m., she arrived home, 12 hours later than anticipated.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press photographer Emilio Morenatti in Barcelona contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MADRID (AP) — The blackout that paralyzed the Iberian Peninsula for most of Monday had an especially fierce impact on high-speed trains