Spanish underground line running again after derailment
Services have today resumed on a Valencia underground line that suffered a derailment that killed 41 people in the Spanish coastal city, a transport department spokesman said.
Trains on Line 1 began running again at 5.30am (5.30am Irish time) after the two carriages involved in Monday’s accident were removed from the tracks at Jesus station, said Valencia subway company spokesman Juan Carlos Murillo.
“Many people still do not know the line is back running so it’s not that busy,” he said. “But little by little we’ll get back to normal.”
Yesterday, Valencia regional transport minister Jose Ramon Garcia Anton said investigations showed the train that derailed had been travelling at 50 mph, rather than the normal speed of 25 mph, at the curved section where it left the tracks.
Officials suspect the driver either fainted or became otherwise indisposed before the accident.
The accident turned Valencia from a city preparing for a festive visit by Pope Benedict XVI at the weekend to one mourning its dead.
Hundreds of thousands of people were travelling to the Mediterranean city for the meeting, but organisers called off all festive celebrations that had been planned for the Pope’s visit.
A funeral service at the city’s cathedral yesterday was attended by King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and his wife and other national and regional dignitaries.
Garcia Anton said neither the train nor tracks had sustained mechanical failure before the derailment in Spain’s third-largest city, denying initial reports that a wheel on the train had broken.
Yesterday, Valencia and other Spanish cities observed five minutes of silence in honour of the victims. Another 47 people were injured.
Five of the 41 killed were foreign nationals – from Argentina, Bulgaria, Colombia, Paraguay and Venezuela. One victim remained unidentified.
Pope Benedict, who arrives in Valencia on Saturday for the Roman Catholic church’s World Meeting of the Families, prayed for the victims. The city has been festooned with posters advertising the visit, and flags with the yellow and white colours of the Vatican hung from many balconies.
