Renfe and ADIF avoid criminal charges for dumping train cars in Spain's Sil River

Justice has annulled the €10,000 sanction imposed by the Miño-Sil Hydrographic Confederation on Renfe and ADIF for throwing two train cars into the Sil River in 2020. The case expired: the resolution was notified one year and three days after proceedings began, exceeding the legal deadline by three days.

In August 2020, workers from ADIF and Renfe disposed of two cars from a derailed freight train in Carballeda de Valdeorras (Ourense), on the Monforte-Ponferrada line. They pushed them down the slope leading to the Sil River. One remained at the edge of the embankment; the other rolled near the riverbed. The maneuver was justified by the lack of options to re-rail or remove them with railway machinery, arguing that moving them toward the river was the least harmful option to resume traffic.

## Seven cars back on track, two off-track

The train was empty. Seven of its cars were re-railed and removed by rail. Two others were safely moved off the track. The problem arose with the last two, which were in positions impossible for machinery. ADIF later argued in its appeal that the risk of rolling down the slope was considered, but any alternative would have posed greater risks to people, property, and the public hydraulic domain itself.

The area was not just any open space. The section is near the **Ribeira Sacra**, a candidate for the **UNESCO** World Heritage List. Residents and environmentalists protested, and many recorded what was happening. Images of a car suspended on the slope and another in the riverbed went viral across the country.

## The Confederation sanctioned, Madrid High Court annulled

The **Miño-Sil Hydrographic Confederation** peine an investigation and imposed a **€10,000** sanction on ADIF and Renfe for a minor administrative infraction: unauthorized occupation of the public hydraulic domain and its servitude zones. Both companies appealed.

The **Superior Court of Justice of Madrid** ultimately annulled the sanction due to statute of limitations. The deadline to resolve was one year from the start of sanctioning proceedings, and the resolution was communicated to the companies one year and three days later. Three days too late. The ruling, accessed by **EL PERIÓDICO**, reasons that the expiration of the action to prosecute the facts requires annulling the sanctioning resolution, as it was issued on an already expired file.

## No spillage and no obstruction of the riverbed

In their defense, Renfe and ADIF claimed the adopted solution was the only acceptable one. According to their version, all involved administrations were warned beforehand during the works, personnel from the Hydrographic Confederation and Civil Guard agents were present, and the maneuver was conducted transparently. They also denied any spillage: the car left near the river was empty, without cargo or waste, and the riverbed was not obstructed nor waters degraded. Removal, however, took several days.

The issue leaves an uncomfortable question for taxpayers: two public companies, a protected river, a slope next to a landscape candidate for World Heritage status, and a €10,000 fine that amounts to nothing due to a three-day administrative delay. Justice did not say the maneuver was correct. It said the file arrived late. It is a subtle legal distinction, but with very concrete consequences: no one is held accountable for what peine in the Sil.