While railway transportation has always been questionable in my country (at least concerning the state-owned network, local networks are mostly fine specially in Barcelona where they are top tier), we've had a full week where chaos has spread far and wide, and the worst part of it is that it caused casualties.

It all started one week ago, on Sunday 18. A high speed train derailed in Andalusia (southern part of the country) and invaded the opposite parallel track, only to be hit afterwards by another high speed train travelling on the other direction, which caused more than 40 casualties. The first train derailed due to a faulty railway, which was a straight section refurbished just 8 months before the accident, and the derailed train was also in perfect condition after passing its last inspection mere days before the accident.

The accident highlighted the many problems the state-owned network had, after years and even decades of delays, lengthy and overrun works and other issues which had earned it a terrible reputation. Many people, drivers included, started voicing their concerns for the safety of the network and questioning the investment it theoretically receives and the maintenance and refurbishment works done all through it. But what no one could expect is that it wouldn't be an isolated accident.

On Tuesday 20, a commuter train in Catalonia (eastern part of the country) operated by the same company hit a fallen retaining wall, killing the driver and injuring many others. This happened on a rainy day, one of the many we've had since December 20 due to consecutive bad weather strikes, so (part of) the accident was attributed to it instead of deficient infrastructure. However, the coincidence made people suspicious that the weather wasn't that much to blame.

These accidents have luckily been the only ones with casualties, but in these last seven days we've had three more crashes and at least two derailments all over the country, and all in lines or services operated by the same company. Obviously, the situation has gotten to a boiling point, and a strike was announced to take place in February to demand further security and insopections on the network to stop this catastrophic chain of events.

More was to come by surprise when on Saturday we received the major news that the local services in Catalonia operated by that company were to be cancelled indefinitely with immediate effect until the local network could be carefully revised and scrutineered to guarantee the safety of both passengers and drivers. Precisely drivers had opted to voluntarily stop all service for a couple days given the persistent bad weather and the series of incidents, but the service returned to normal operation until this bomb was dropped.

With no previous announcement whatsoever, many people was left without a way of returning home either after work or leisure. No special bus shuttles or anything to substitute the cancelled transport was instated, so stranded people had to found alternative ways to reach their homes and will need to rethink their travels for the upcoming weeks. And it's just a matter of time that the existing infrastructure of other railway services and standard buses will become saturated, so more chaos will undoubtedly ensure as the investigations keep going. And who knows if this saturation can also surpass the patience of the overworked drivers and instigate more strikes.

We've been thrown into total chaos and it's to be expected similar decisions could be taken elsewhere in the country. As we moved towards cities where cars had less and less space making people rely on public transport whilst they had to reside out of the city due to ever rising costs of buying or renting a flat, this will be a major blow that will be hardly forgotten and many people won't go back to using the affected railways.

Me and my friends have theorised this could be a sabotage, for reasons we currently ignore. It's impossible that nearly 10 accidents happen in the span of six days out of mere coincidence due to faulty equipment that decided to fail in quick succession, though I will admit the accident attributed to the weather could in fact be such given the unprecedented episode of bad weather we've been enduring. Time will tell what's going on but the consequences are far from over, and will surely echo through the rest of this newborn year.

I sincerely hope there are no more accidents, because the entire country's patience is at its very limit as things currently are and the consequences could escalate quite quickly and/or heavily. And if we can't avoid more accidents, at least let there be no more casualties.