Ministry of Transport recovers the C1, C2 and C3 service in Valencia by train and 112 free buses with 56,000 seats per day after the DANA

Moncloa Palace, Madrid

Pool Moncloa/José Manuel Álvarez

Minister Óscar Puente, who reported on the current state of the affected infrastructures and their expected recovery, explained that the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, through Renfe and Adif, will partially reopen the C1 and C2 commuter train lines in Valencia tomorrow, and will activate a road transport service with 112 free buses to guarantee the operation of the C1, C2 and C3 lines affected by the DANA.

"Thanks to the workers of the ministry I head and its public companies, we are going to re-establish 99% of the Cercanías service, a very important step in the recovery of mobility in the metropolitan area of Valencia, as 82,000 passengers a day use the Cercanías network", said Óscar Puente after the meeting of the Crisis Committee to monitor the effects of the DANA.

As a result, from Wednesday 13 November, almost all services will be covered by train and bus. Of these, 52% were served by rail and 47% by road. Bus services will be free of charge.

To provide the road service, Renfe has made available 56,000 seats per day and scheduled 1,022 daily circulations for the three lines, and the buses will stop at all locations on the corridors not served by local services. The budget for the road service is around 11.3 million euros.

Specifically, the section of the C1 between Gandía and Silla will be carried out by train and the section between Silla and Valencia by bus. On the C2, it will be possible to travel by train between Moixent and Carcaixent and then by bus to Valencia. For its part, the C3 Valencia-Utiel line service will be operated entirely by road due to the complicated state of the infrastructure.

As a result, between Silla and Valencia (C1) a direct bus service is established with a basic frequency of 10 minutes on working days, which will be reinforced depending on the existing demand. The starting point will be in Valencia Joaquín Sorolla while the return will be to Valencia Estació del Nord.

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, chairs by videoconference the meeting of the Crisis Committee to monitor the effects of the DANA | Pool Moncloa/Borja Puig de la Bellacasa

On line C2, the service will be provided with five bus lines: Four direct bus lines between Valencia and Carcaixent, Alzira, Algemesí and Benifaió, with frequencies ranging from 15 to 30 minutes on weekdays, and a bus line with intermediate stops to Silla.

Line C3 offers the usual number of journeys by road from Utiel Requena to Valencia and intermediate stops. In this case, departures will start from Plaza de España and arrivals will be at Valencia Estació del Nord. There will be no stop in Cheste due to the complicated situation. The first buses will leave from Silla in the direction of Valencia and from Carcaixent at 5.00 am. From Valencia station towards Utiel, at 6.30 am. The last bus service will depart at 22:30 on C1 and C2 and at 22:05 on C3.

Repair of lines

Cercanías lines C1 and C2 are partially reopened after less than two weeks of intensive work by Adif to clear the tracks and stations of vehicles, mud and materials, and to repair the infrastructure.

Specifically, the operator has removed more than 1,000 vehicles from the lines, reviewed and lifted the track, repaired platforms, replaced the tracks and ballast and carried out safety tests to put them into service in optimum conditions. As of Wednesday 13 November, 222.3 kilometres of the Cercanías lines will have been recovered after the damage caused by the devastating rains, including 125.4 km of the C6 and C5, whose service was activated on Saturday 2 November.

This work has also been carried out on the high-speed line between Madrid and Valencia, where the platform had to be rebuilt and the tracks had to be replaced in the area of the Chiva tunnel, and the safety installations of the Torrent tunnel, which was flooded, were repaired.

In this sense, the works have already been completed and, as of Thursday 14 November, all high-speed trains will run on the line, which means a total of 199 weekly services in both directions with an offer of 80,000 seats per week by Renfe. Tickets are now on sale.

Adif continues to work on the repair and reconstruction of the two most damaged sections of lines C1, C2 and C3, which is in a very complicated situation with a viaduct, the Cheste viaduct, with one of its abutments destroyed. It should be recalled that after the rains, around 80 kilometres were completely destroyed and unrecoverable.

The Minister for Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, appears before the media after the meeting of the Crisis Committee to monitor the effects of the DANA | Pool Moncloa/Fernando Calvo

Road situation

For its part, the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, through the General Directorate of Roads, is making progress in the recovery of road mobility in the province and in the repair of state-owned roads damaged by the DANA.

In this regard, on Thursday 14 November, the provisional diversion of the A-7 will be opened at Quart de Poblet, which will allow traffic to be restored on the southern ring road of the A-7 in Valencia and the connection with the A-3, which will restore the functionality of the Valencia bypass. This is a very important action as it will re-establish a backbone of the Mediterranean corridor, through which more than 100,000 vehicles circulate daily.

Currently, and after more than ten days working night and day, we already have 139 kilometres of the network recovered and in service, including the A-3, the V-30, the V-31, a section of the N-330 that connects Utiel with Talayuelas, and the N-3, at the height of Siete Aguas and Buñol.

It should be recalled that, following the heavy rains, 160 kilometres of the road network and its annexed roads were seriously affected.

We continue to work on emergency works on the N-330, N-322, A-7 and A-3 to rebuild collapsed structures and damaged lanes. A total of 29 million euros of emergency funds has been made available initially, and more than 540 people are currently working day and night in triple shifts to make as much progress as possible.

Non official translation