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Date Published: 05/05/2025

Madrid-Sevilla rail disruption leaves 10,000 stranded after cable theft

Spain’s Transport Minister has slammed the robbery as an “act of serious sabotage”

Days after a power outage caused public transport across Spain to grind to a halt, passengers up and down the country had to face yet more major disruption. At least 10,700 passengers and 30 trains were affected on Sunday May 4 by the theft of high-speed rail cables on the Madrid to Sevilla line.

The disruption, which coincided with the end of the May bank holiday, led to widespread delays and service suspensions.

Transport Minister Óscar Puente condemned the incident on his X account, calling it “an act of serious sabotage.”

According to Adif, the state-owned railway manager, the cable theft occurred between Mora, Orgaz and Urda in the province of Toledo. The incident caused delays of around 25 minutes to Long Distance, High Speed and AVANT services.

Repair teams were dispatched immediately when the theft was discovered at 5.45pm to repair the damaged cable, but the disruption was compounded by a separate incident involving an Iryo train.

Renfe President Álvaro Fernández de Heredia explained that in addition to the cable theft, “an Iryo train got caught in the cable and dragged the overhead line.”

The Transport Minister confirmed that, all in all, four cable thefts had occurred in different locations within a 10-kilometre radius.

“These are the line's security systems. The impact on the trains still running will be very serious. And we'll only have two hours from the time we finish today to repair it,” Mr Puente stated.

Separate to the cable theft, another rail infrastructure failure between Madrid and Andalucía also caused delays on at least six Renfe trains on Sunday, with some services held up for up to an hour.

In other news: Free train and bus passes in Spain: Everything you need to know about season tickets

Images: Renfe/Adif

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