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Madrid-Seville high-speed rail restored after outage caused by a fault
High-speed rail traffic between Madrid and Seville was restored on Wednesday morning after a night of interruption caused by an electrical failure in the railway infrastructure. The closure forced services to be suspended and disrupted the plans of travellers intending to travel between Madrid, Seville and other Andalusian destinations.
The incident occurred on Tuesday afternoon and affected the section between Sevilla-Santa Justa and Guadajoz, on the Madrid-Andalucía high-speed line. Adif made the infrastructure available to railway companies again once the problem had been resolved and the main damage repaired.
The cause was a high-voltage cable falling onto the railway infrastructure. According to Adif, that cable does not belong to the entity, but it caused a loss of electricity supply, damage to the overhead line and a fire that made it necessary to halt traffic for safety reasons.
The impact was not limited to high-speed trains between Madrid and Seville. The fault also affected Media Distancia services and the Cercanías de Sevilla network, widening the consequences for those travelling around the Andalusian capital and its surroundings.
During the night, technical teams worked to remove the cable, inspect the overhead line and restore the safety conditions needed to reopen the line. The priority was to prevent trains from running along a section with electrical damage or risks for passengers and workers.
The interruption came at a particularly difficult time, with travellers waiting for the last trains of the day, connections and late-night arrivals. Some people had to change their plans, wait for information at stations or make use of ticket changes and cancellations.
Renfe offered affected travellers on the Madrid-Seville line free changes and cancellations. The companies operating on the corridor had to adjust services while Adif completed the repair and authorised traffic again.
The restoration makes it possible to recover one of the country’s most important rail connections, key for work travel, tourism and journeys between Madrid and Andalusia. Even so, travellers should check the status of their train before leaving, as an incident of this type can leave accumulated delays during the first hours of normalisation.
The episode once again shows the fragility of a heavily used network, where an external failure can paralyse a strategic corridor for hours. For thousands of passengers, normality returned this Wednesday, but the fault makes clear that high speed also depends on invisible infrastructure which, when it fails, can completely change a day of travel.