Spain's high-speed train sinks into political mire

Spain's most ambitious engineering project for a century, the high-speed train link between Madrid and Barcelona, has screeched to a halt amid warnings of imminent catastrophe. Engineers accuse the Public Works Ministry of botching work on the €7bn (£4.5bn) project in a headlong dash to meet deadlines that suit the election calendar.

The 290-mile stretch between Madrid and the Aragonese town of Lleida was due to open this month, but high-profile trips were cancelled when alarmed journalists on a promotional ride experienced delays, bumps, lurches and building sites instead of stations. Champagne, whisky and chocolatesfailed to disguise the train's tendency to bounce along the track and to tilt alarmingly even at speeds far short of the vaunted 220mph.

The experimental signalling system failed and overhead cables snapped because their supports were not stabilised. Officials had to resort to mobile phones to check that the track was clear. Arrival at Lleida was further held up by angry farmers protesting at the inadequate compensation they had received for expropriated land. Police kicked them and hauled them off by the ears.

Two days after the press trip, a cavern measuring 1,800 cubic feet opened beneath the track. There followed a blizzard of polemic that threatens to poison regional elections in May, when the Lleida-Madrid stretch was supposed to be in full swing, and next year's general elections, when the link with Barcelona was supposed to be operational.

The pugnacious Public Works Minister, Francisco Alvarez Cascos, disclaimed all responsibility. He accused regional authorities of carrying out excavation work that undermined the track and attributed the snapped cables to "sabotage". He even blamed the previous Socialist government for installing a high-speed link to Seville in the 1990s, "thus delaying the Barcelona link for 12 years".

The track for the high-speed train, the AVE, was entrusted not to Spain's experienced rail company Renfe, creators of the silky smooth Madrid-Seville link, but to a quango, Railway Infrastructure Management (GIF), set up by Jose Maria Aznar's government seven years ago. GIF subcontracted the work, enabling the ministry to finance it without the funds appearing in the national budget. Successful bidders promised to meet the tight deadlines but, say critics, poor co-ordination and government pressure produced chaos. Between July and October last year there were six serious accidents and five deaths, which unions attribute to the breakneck speed of the work.

Geologists say they warned two years ago that the terrain on the 30-mile stretch between Zaragoza and Lleida was unstable, as locals have always known. But GIF ignored geologists' advice. The quango boss finally had to resign when photographs appeared of track floating above empty space. He was replaced by an old Renfe hand, Ramon Escribano, who promptly tore up the deadlines. But few now dare predict when passengers will be able to glide between Spain's two main cities in just two hours and 40 minutes.