Spain's transportation department and the private state rail operator, Renfe, announced a fat $275 million contract that started three years ago to modernize the country's commuter railway in Asturias and Cantabria with fancy new trains. Problem is, last month it was discovered that the new trains under construction are too wide to make it through the existing tunnels. Isabel Pardo de Vera, Spain's secretary of state for transport, and Isaías Táboas, the president of Renfe, have resigned as a result of the "bodge," as it was called by Cantabria's regional president. From The Guardian:
The Socialist-led coalition government of prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has tried to make further amends by announcing that travel on the Asturian and Cantabrian networks affected by the delays would be free until the new rolling stock began to come into service in early 2026.
"From the moment I found out about this matter, I've done everything I could to find out what happened and to find a solution," Spain's transport minister, Raquel Sánchez, told reporters after meeting Revilla and Barbón on Monday […]
The government has, however, previously been at pains to insist that the errors had been spotted before any train was built, and that "not a single euro of Spaniards' money has been wasted" as a result.
