Time's Up
Last week, a train left Santander to arrive at 23:15 at Madrid. That was what the passengers expected and had paid for. What they got was a bus ride from Osorno to Madrid at eleven thirty.
The train left Santander fifteen minutes late. The engineer had only rested a half hour of the obligatory forty-five minutes. He called the station at Osorno ahead of time to ask for a replacement to await the train as soon as he reached it. When the train arrived, at around nine o'clock, the replacement was nowhere around. The engineer turned off the engines and quit the train. His work time of five and a half hours was over. If he continued to Madrid, it would be against regulations. If anything happened to the train or the passengers, he would be the one responsible for having exceeded the maximum amount of time he could drive. Given the accident a few days before, in which four people died in Porriño, he decided to call it quits. He had called ahead for a replacement. The replacement wasn't there, the company could decide what to do with the gradually angrier passengers.
The passengers were definitely angry. All the claim forms the train had were quickly exhausted. Until the Guardia Civil showed up, the train doors remained closed. A hundred and nine people were angrily denouncing their abandonment. They were told buses would be brought to the station for them to continue on their way, but the buses took their time showing up. Finally, around eleven thirty, the buses appeared to take the suffering passengers to Madrid.
As usual, Renfe, the Spanish railway company, opened an investigation into the matter, centering on the engineer. It doesn't matter what happens or not, the engineer and "human error" is always to blame in Spain. In the train accident in Santiago three years ago, the engineer was blamed for excessive speed. It didn't matter that when the high-speed rail was built, modern methods of independently slowing down trains in the event the engineer was distracted or ill, were never installed. The European Union pointed out that the investigation done by Spanish officials did not mention that and needed to be redone by independent investigators. But, to the Spanish justice system, the engineer is still the only one to blame.
In Porriño earlier this month, the train was shunted onto an auxiliary track where the speed limit was 30 kph and the engineer was going at 110 kph. Again, though it was pointed out that the train was an ancient one from the 1980's and that the track did not have the necessary technology to automatically brake the train above a certain speed, the dead engineer is still being blamed. It's the easiest thing to do, blame one man and have his life ruined even if the blame is shared by many, especially government institutions.
One wonders, if the train from Santander to Madrid had continued, and the engineer done extra hours, would he have been disciplined upon arrival? Most likely, yes. But, because the train would most likely have arrived well, and nobody ever mention it in the news, he might have been docked some pay and little else. Since he quit the train and the passengers got angry, he just might end up being fired or suspended. Spanish logic is as twisted as a pine tree bent by the sea wind.
The train left Santander fifteen minutes late. The engineer had only rested a half hour of the obligatory forty-five minutes. He called the station at Osorno ahead of time to ask for a replacement to await the train as soon as he reached it. When the train arrived, at around nine o'clock, the replacement was nowhere around. The engineer turned off the engines and quit the train. His work time of five and a half hours was over. If he continued to Madrid, it would be against regulations. If anything happened to the train or the passengers, he would be the one responsible for having exceeded the maximum amount of time he could drive. Given the accident a few days before, in which four people died in Porriño, he decided to call it quits. He had called ahead for a replacement. The replacement wasn't there, the company could decide what to do with the gradually angrier passengers.
The passengers were definitely angry. All the claim forms the train had were quickly exhausted. Until the Guardia Civil showed up, the train doors remained closed. A hundred and nine people were angrily denouncing their abandonment. They were told buses would be brought to the station for them to continue on their way, but the buses took their time showing up. Finally, around eleven thirty, the buses appeared to take the suffering passengers to Madrid.
As usual, Renfe, the Spanish railway company, opened an investigation into the matter, centering on the engineer. It doesn't matter what happens or not, the engineer and "human error" is always to blame in Spain. In the train accident in Santiago three years ago, the engineer was blamed for excessive speed. It didn't matter that when the high-speed rail was built, modern methods of independently slowing down trains in the event the engineer was distracted or ill, were never installed. The European Union pointed out that the investigation done by Spanish officials did not mention that and needed to be redone by independent investigators. But, to the Spanish justice system, the engineer is still the only one to blame.
In Porriño earlier this month, the train was shunted onto an auxiliary track where the speed limit was 30 kph and the engineer was going at 110 kph. Again, though it was pointed out that the train was an ancient one from the 1980's and that the track did not have the necessary technology to automatically brake the train above a certain speed, the dead engineer is still being blamed. It's the easiest thing to do, blame one man and have his life ruined even if the blame is shared by many, especially government institutions.
One wonders, if the train from Santander to Madrid had continued, and the engineer done extra hours, would he have been disciplined upon arrival? Most likely, yes. But, because the train would most likely have arrived well, and nobody ever mention it in the news, he might have been docked some pay and little else. Since he quit the train and the passengers got angry, he just might end up being fired or suspended. Spanish logic is as twisted as a pine tree bent by the sea wind.
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