Spain and Portugal were struck by a total electricity outage last week. Trains came to a halt all across the Iberian peninsula. Now that the situation has been resolved, what are the lessons learned?
The blackout affected both freight and passenger trains very much, explains Juan Diego Pedrero, executive president of Spain’s Association of Private Rail Companies (AEFP). Part of the reason is that 60% of the country’s rail traffic is electrified. “In addition, communications were cut off, which caused a greater collapse and the difficulty of being able to act quickly”, Pedrero explains.
Nevertheless, a prior plan proved to be crucial during the breakdown of traffic. “It was possible to implement the incident protocol through some of our AEFP companies in coordination with the infrastructure manager Adif.”
For example, scout or rescue locomotives moved stranded freight and passenger trains. That helped significantly to reduce the congestion on the rail network. “However, the situation took several days to regularise due to the magnitude of the collapse”, the AEFP president says.
Satellites and backup energy
Having a protocol in place is important, but is there more? “It seems clear that we should reflect on the origin of our energies and reinforce the control and command centres with backup energies”, says Pedrero.
In some areas, the recovery of rail traffic progressed faster than in others, and that has everything to do with the return of electricity. For example, the interconnection of the electricity network with France in the north and Morocco in the south helped Catalonia, Basque Country and southern regions of Spain to get back on track more quickly than other places.
Moreover, Pedrero mentions greater satellite infrastructure to prevent the interruption of communications and doubling relief services. Those, he says, “have given such good results in this recent crisis. As president of the Association of Private Railway Companies I congratulate our associates for the great work done in order to unblock the situation of the railways.”