Delays to Madrid trains after a man entered the tracks

The incident began at around 10:00, when Adif's control centre detected a person walking in the track area between the two stations. For safety reasons, services were suspended while security teams and police forces intervened to locate the individual and ensure that the route was free of risks.

After being located near Méndez Álvaro station, the man was held by security personnel until the arrival of the Policía Nacional, which proceeded to arrest him. As Transport Minister Óscar Puente later confirmed, he was a 42-year-old Russian citizen with a criminal record for common offences, who was placed at the disposal of the police to clarify what had happened.

The disruption forced the temporary stoppage of Renfe, Ouigo and Iryo trains running along the high-speed corridor to the Levante. Although traffic could be restored approximately an hour and a half later, delays continued for much of the day, affecting the

The incident also coincided with a particularly delicate period for rail mobility in Madrid, where work to expand capacity around Atocha is continuing. These works already require frequencies and routes to be altered on several Cercanías lines during the summer, so any isolated incident has a greater impact on the network as a whole.

The tunnel connecting Atocha with Méndez Álvaro is one of the strategic points of Madrid's rail system. High-speed services and numerous trains linking Madrid with different parts of the country run through it every day. When an incident occurs on this section, the repercussions quickly extend to dozens of connections and disrupt the plans of thousands of travellers who depend on the train for their daily journeys.