The spokesperson of the Platform Víctimas Alvia 04155, Jesús Domínguez, has described the meeting held with the First Deputy Vice President and Minister of Economy, Trade and Business, Carlos Cuerpo, as "more of the same" and has emphasized the absence of "firm commitments" on the part of the Executive.
In his statements to the press after the meeting, Domínguez has described the appointment with the minister as "correct" but has criticized that the State continues to follow "the script" applied by the PP after the Angrois disaster in 2013, when the main cause was attributed to a human failure by the train driver.
As he has indicated, this institutional stance causes that "the same mistakes continue to be repeated" and that Spain maintains the "world record for high-speed accidents".
The platform of those affected by Angrois has demanded from Cuerpo that the regulation that allows trains to run at 200 kilometers per hour with the backup system 'Asfa' be eliminated "urgently" when the 'ERTMS' or the 'LZB' stop working, both of which are specific to high speed.
"Tired of tall tales and comic strips"
In the face of the lack of "firm commitments" on the part of the minister, Domínguez has explained that they have been called again for next Tuesday, once the department has analyzed the proposals put forward in the meeting. However, he has warned that, if the Ministry does not accept reopening an independent investigation into Angrois, they will not attend any more meetings because they are "tired of tall tales and comic strips".
In relation to the initiative of the Ministry to create the figure of the Defender of Victims of Accidents of Collective Transport, the spokesperson has recalled that the former minister Ana Pastor already set up an assistance office and a specific statute for victims, insisting that the priority should not be focused on new care structures, but on "preventing more victims".
To achieve that, he has asked for compliance with the repeated demands of the European Commission, the European Railway Agency, and the Transport commissioners to repeat the investigation into the Angrois disaster. Along these lines, he has argued that accidents like the one in Urda (Toledo) were "100% avoidable" and that they would not have occurred if the high-speed ERTMS system had been fully operational.
Technical-scientific commission and exclusions
Likewise, the victims have raised the creation of an independent technical-scientific commission made up solely of European specialists unaffiliated with the institutions involved.
Domínguez has warned the minister that, if he resorts to Adif or the Rail Accident Investigation Commission (CIAF), they will "deceive him," since these are the same bodies that drew up the first reports and, in his view, overlooked the "root causes."
For this reason, he has demanded that it be separated from any new analysis by technicians or officials linked to Adif, Renfe, or the State Railway Safety Agency (AESF), considering that they would be "judge and party."
In this context, he has defined the new independent authority as a "pandereta system," given that it is the Minister of Transport himself who proposes its chair. He has also recalled the two infringement proceedings opened by the European Union, the community audit, and the warning letter sent by the European Commissioner for Transport, prompted by the absence of risk assessments on the rail network.
Commercial priority over safety
On the other hand, Domínguez reproached that the "commercial priority" in rail operations is placed ahead of the physical safety of passengers. He pointed out that in Angrois, the system was disconnected due to the delays it generated and that, after the Urda accident, circulation was forced without the nominal protection to avoid delays in the connection with Seville.
"If to set up the operating system they have to cut the Madrid-Seville line for a month, then cut it and have people go by bus, but our lives are at risk," he stressed.
The technical analysis was expanded by Jorge Iglesias, a retired civil servant of CEDEX and an expert from the first European laboratory of ERTMS, who has demanded the immediate withdrawal of the backup system 'Asfa'. In this sense, he has put forward the idea of a National Plan for the gradual withdrawal of that system and the implementation of ERTMS across the entire conventional and high-speed network.
As for the Madrid-Seville line, he has warned that it continues to use the "obsolete" LZB system, which has suffered 170 fall-offs so far this year. For this reason, he has proposed suspending the service for a month — "if necessary" — to concentrate all of Adif's resources on the definitive rollout of ERTMS, without further delays.