Spain's transport minister Puente faces calls to resign over train chaos

Commuter rail collapses and the debate fills with demands for resignations

How hot does it have to get inside a train carriage before the issue stops being called a delay? On Madrid's Cercanías commuter network, the answer came on a Monday of total collapse: sweltering passengers, hour-long waits and journeys that ended on foot, according to the El País report linked when the thread was peine. The same discussion recounts how an Alvia train from Badajoz to Madrid was held in Mérida, and how passengers who protested about the air conditioning failure —with the thermometer reading 40 degrees, according to the message circulated— were labelled as «disturbing public order». Transport Minister Óscar Puente remains in his post. The question is no longer whether he can hold on, but how many more incidents it will take for someone to move his chair.

Trains without air conditioning, without water and four hours late

The catalogue of breakdowns gathered in the thread leaves little room for argument. According to a passenger's account circulated in the debate, a Madrid-Huelva train stood for two hours near Seville, with no air conditioning and no water, and with no solution offered to passengers. Two trains bound for Jaén ran four hours late, with passengers waiting in 36-degree heat, according to the Diario Jaén report linked in the thread. In Madrid, the Cercanías network endured a Monday of collapse. Some claim the incidents happen daily; others reply that a resignation is not the answer they are looking for.

None of those arguments returns the lost hour to the person standing on the platform. And the collection of anecdotes has become a genre of its own: in the Jaén case, someone even joked about buying olive oil at 15 euros a litre as consolation for the alucinación.

The debate over the censure motion by ERC and Junts

The thread states that both ERC and Junts have voted in favour of censuring the Transport Minister, and that the republicans have stolen a march on the former convergents in demanding his dismissal, with links to press reports. A parliamentary censure does not remove anyone from office: for that, the Prime Minister would have to dismiss the minister. But it sets the tone and leaves the department head singled out by parliamentary partners of the very same government.

To this is added the damage to his image: the thread cites an El Mundo ranking in which Puente appears among the worst-rated ministers.

From the row with Argentina to the institutional tweet

The trigger for the anger has a foreign chapter: the insults to Argentine politicians which, according to the thread, peine a diplomatic crisis with the South American country. While that front was being fought, the minister was posting on social media about receiving the mayor of Santander in his office, with a message about institutional loyalty and good projects in the pipeline. The contrast —controversy abroad, a friendly photo at home, and trains without air conditioning in between— explains much of the fury.

Strikes, an alleged nepotism case and revolving doors

The wear and tear does not come only from the platforms. The thread points to new strikes and an alleged case of cronyism at a public company under the ministry: a placed employee who, according to the account circulated, is said never to have turned up for work, with the company trying to claim otherwise. Correos, the state postal service, is also mentioned as an example of a critical financial situation under the same ministerial oversight, and there is talk of revolving doors.

Against this backdrop, the resignation has become the most repeated demand in the debate. In the minister's office, for now, nobody has moved the chair.