Spanish transport officials resign after trains ordered that can’t fit through tunnels

By Alyssa McMurtry

OVIEDO, Spain (AA) - Two top transportation officials in Spain resigned Monday after it emerged that Spanish authorities ordered 31 commuter trains that were too big to fit through tunnels.

Anadolu confirmed that Spain’s Transportation Ministry accepted the resignation of the Secretary of State for Transport, Isabel Pardo de Vera, and the president of the state rail company Renfe, Isaías Taboas.

The 31 trains, ordered in 2020, were expected to renew the aging fleet of trains in the regions of Asturias and Cantabria in the coming months. But the design mistake could delay the project for years.

“In 40 years of my political career, I’ve never seen such a mess,” said the president of Cantabria, Miguel Angel Revilla, in a press conference. “But the fact that people knew about this for two years is an enormous disloyalty.”

The Spanish transport minister apologized for the mistake but blamed the previous central administration for failing to give either region new trains since 2006.

The regional leaders argue that residents of Asturias and Cantabria should get free train travel until the trains are delivered.