The main news story for the last few weeks (although you could easily argue months if not years) has been the controversy about the soon-to-be-don’t-know-quite-when-yet-exactly arrival of the AVE high-speed train into the centre of Barcelona. The date for the first train to pull into Sants station is 21 December, and it would seem that previously cut corners are now being desperately cut once again in order to meet this clearly impossible date.

In recent days, I’ve lost count of the number of morning newspaper headlines telling of another hundimiento or socavón (landslide/ground collapse) in the area of the final few kilometres of the line into the city from the area heading out to the airport, which have caused the closure of the existing local train lines heavily used by commuters. Pictures of Bellvitge station with a section of its platform collapsed into a hole in the ground have focused the worries of the tens of thousands of these people who travel on the network daily, not to mention a number of workers who’ve gone public with their concerns about the enthusiastic corner-cutting. (Check out the final link below for a more sensationalist vision of the effects of a tunnel collapse in Barcelona).

Every day it seems another train line is affected by a rather large hole opening in the ground, leading to Plaza España being converted into a giant bus-stop on a daily basis with endless queues of people boarding hundreds of temporary buses in order to reach their workplaces. The news crews asking the public for their thoughts have come up against some pretty irate people who are at the end of their tether with the whole drawn-out mess. One of which I saw was a middle-aged man angrily slapping the front page of a newspaper carrying a headline quote from PM Zapatero which implored people to “be patient”, and telling the camera that “patience” is something that he and his fellow passengers no longer have. (Hence the title of this blog entry.)

The Spanish PM is heavily involved (helped along by the upcoming elections of course) and is arriving in Barcelona today to see the state of things for himself. The Minister for Public Works is notable by her absence though, and was last seen commenting a few days ago from a safe distance…. Yes, she was hundreds of miles away in Seville! (A city which of course already has the AVE). Not an unreasonable life-choice though given that so many people at this end of the country would like to have a “quiet word” with her!

It’s not only the daily commuters who are suffering from acute AVE-strain, but the people that live in the L’Hospitalet district just outside the main city, who have had to live with the works for years. People there are only too happy to let news crews into their homes to furiously point to the large cracks in their walls, not to mention balconies precariously splitting away from the building, caused by the underground works (a charge often denied by the contractors).

The desperation on the part of the government to meet the date is obvious. So much so, that according to many reports, it’s now being discussed whether to abandon Sants station as the central arrival point, and just call it a day when the AVE reaches El Prat (very much outside the main city, close to the airport). I haven’t had a chance to figure out what people make of this suggestion yet, but to me it seems like the railway equivalent of a sending men to the moon but then telling them that as they’re almost there, “don’t bother landing, it’s been a nice trip so let’s not push our luck. We’ll just tell everyone you made it anyway”! I can’t wait to see the obligatory group of suited government officials disembarking from the first AVE, proudly proclaiming that it has arrived “in Barcelona on time”. Talk about moving the goalposts! Literally!

There are tons of reports (in Spanish of course) about this story in all the news sites (including: www.elmundo.es, www.elpais.es, and www.lavanguardia.es ). One that caught my eye this morning was this list of 50 questions and answers on the subject, in particular question 25 which suggests that the government’s interest is only focused at this late stage because the practical effects of the line closures due to landslides etc are felt most by users of the local trains who are, in turn, more likely to be PSOE voters (i.e. government supporters), as opposed to the average potential AVE passenger, who tends to vote PP (apparently).

Other related links:

Video of one of the ground collapses under a station platform

Report on the possible decision to move the AVE terminal from Sants to El Prat (which also includes a video of the not-so-popular Minister for Public Works saying that “running away from problems is for cowards”)

Mock news report from July showing how things MIGHT look if the AVE tunnel under the Sagrada Familia were ever to collapse!