A Media Distancia train carrying around 90 people came to a standstill in the early hours of 9 October inside the Das Maceiras tunnel, on line 850 (Vigo-Urzáiz to Arcade Junction, Redondela), following a fault with an outbreak of fire.
It was not a real incident, but a drill organised by Adif with Renfe to test the response to an emergency in the longest tunnel on the Atlantic Corridor, which is 8,279 m long.
The crew was unable to control the simulated fire, so the standard protocol was activated: notification to Adif’s protection centre, mobilisation of external services and launch of the evacuation.
Vigo firefighters intervened to extinguish the fire and remove ten simulated casualties, who were subsequently treated by Urgencias Sanitarias 061. The remaining passengers — including a blind person — were evacuated through a cross-passage into the adjacent bore and, from there, to the outside.
Axega, Civil Protection, the National Police, Local Police and Civil Guard also took part. Renfe provided a Class 121 train, the fleet used on A Coruña–Vigo services, as well as staff and traffic management and security centres.
Such drills make it possible to verify on the ground whether self-protection plans are operational, whether the cross-passages and exits work, and whether evacuation times are acceptable. They also require Adif, Renfe, medical services, firefighters and security forces to rehearse communications and command arrangements jointly — something that is difficult to validate on paper alone.
In a tunnel, where smoke, ventilation and rescue crews’ access can complicate an intervention, identifying shortcomings during an exercise avoids discovering them during a real emergency.