Madrid (EFE).- The new metric-gauge trains for Cantabria and Asturias will be circulating in the first months of 2026, as expected by the Government, which, while it will condition the current ones, will expand contracting and appoint a commissioner for the execution of the plans vicinity of those communities.
This was announced by the Minister of Transport, Raquel Sánchez, after meeting this Monday with the presidents of Asturias and Cantabria, Adrián Barbón and Miguel Ángel Revilla, respectively, to explain how the situation is after the errors in the measurements of the contracted trains, that will cause a delay in its manufacture of two years.
As he explained, the Government’s idea is that the design of the new trains with the so-called comparative method be ready by summer, so that “by the end of this year or at the latest by the beginning of 2024” CAF can start manufacturing them.
The minister has reported these details after it emerged that the controversy over the contracting of the new metric gauge trains for Cantabria and Asturias has claimed the charges of the president of Renfe, Isaías Taboas, and the Secretary of State for Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda and former president of Adif, Isabel Pardo de Vera.
Raül Blanco will be the new president of Renfe and David Lucas, the Secretary of State for Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda, whose positions will be approved on Tuesday by the Council of Ministers, sources from that ministry have confirmed to Efe.
Lucas is Secretary General of the Urban Agenda and Housing. Blanco was Secretary General of Industry and SMEs until the end of last year, when he was relieved of his position after the controversy over the delay of the PERTE of the electric car. EFE