Jonathan’s hands still shake as he shows the videos that his acquaintances send him from Valencia. He lives in Picassent but during the torrential rains that devastated the Valencian Community he was in Madrid for work. “I don’t know how my house or my car is and my friends haven’t responded to me since yesterday at five in the afternoon“They are completely cut off,” he says from the Chamartín station. His friends live in Paiportaone of the areas most affected by DANA. Like Jonathan, there are more than 15,000 people who have not been able to travel from the Madrid station to Valencia. And, for now, circulation on the high-speed line will remain suspended throughout this Wednesday, October 30, due to the effects of the storm.
Chamartín became the night shelter for a moment for passengers who were going to travel to Levante and could not. As announced by the Minister of Transport, Oscar PuenteAdif has kept Madrid stations open all night ChamartinValencia Joaquín Sorolla and Cuenca Fernando Zóbel. This morning there were few people left who had spent the night there: “They went to other areas of Spain or to Madrid when they found out that no train was leaving today for that destination,” says an Adif worker who attends consultations at the station.
The problem, according to those who are still waiting in Chamartín, is that The companies only offer them a refund of the ticket amount or relocate them when circulation is restored. They have not covered, for example, the cost of the hotels. Patricia is with her family: “For six people, hotels are very expensive and it is difficult to find three rooms.” He has a young son and his mother is in a wheelchair. He thinks about, at least, finding a room for the two of them and the rest of them sleeping at the station. Of course, in the event that it remains open tonight as well: from Adif They comment that they will do it “if necessary.”
(More information soon…)