Felipe VI inaugurates the first line of the AVE Cáceres-Badajoz
Protests against Pedro Sánchez for a train "that has come as if it were an AVE but is not"
07/18/2022
Updated at 8:08 p.m.
To the cry of “Get out! outside!" and accompanied by the sound of drums and horns, some thirty Extremadurans have received the Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez at the Adif de Cáceres station. From there, the first phase of the Extremadura high-speed line was inaugurated, connecting Plasencia and Badajoz: 150 kilometers with stops in Cáceres and Mérida. A train that will run at 89 kilometers per hour, which makes it the slowest AVE in Spain and whose set-up Felipe VI has attended.
«This is a shame because you take the map of Spain and everywhere there is AVE except in Extremadura. And this has been sold as if it were an AVE and it is not, ”a passenger on this train, which is far from being celebrated in Extremadura as a success, told this newspaper. This, at least, was intuited by the banners placed in the roundabout of the Cáceres station, where citizens expressed their indignation: "We have the right to the train of the future."
Felipe VI has arrived at the station minutes after Pedro Sánchez. Since 1992, when Juan Carlos I inaugurated the first AVE -which linked Madrid with Seville-, it is a tradition that the King inaugurates the high-speed lines. «This train is not an AVE, but it is good for Sánchez to sell it like this and bring the King, because that way they know that we will not protest so much»declared another woman who was carrying a huge flag of Extremadura.
This first section of the Madrid-Extremadura High-Speed Line represents an investment of 1,700 million euros. This train, as published by ABC, is not even remotely thought of at the moment to reach 250 kilometers per hour, which is the average speed of other AVE that operate in Spain. For this line to reach Madrid, Adif is carrying out an infrastructure for which more than 3,700 million will be invested.
Felipe VI has been accompanied on this inaugural trip by Pedro Sánchez; the Minister of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, Raquel Sánchez; the Government delegate in Extremadura, Yolanda García; the president of the Junta de Extremadura, Guillermo Fernández Vara; and the president of Adif and Adif AV, María Luisa Domínguez, among other authorities. As soon as they got on, the usual public address system announced this inaugural journey and, minutes later, the journey began, which was also enjoyed by other passengers who were not authorities. He has left the Cáceres station on time. About 35 minutes later, he has arrived in Mérida and continued to his final destination: Badajoz.
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