One month after deadly flood, Valencia’s transport system struggles

It has been nearly a month since Storm DANA swept through Spain, severely impacting the community of Valencia. While the flooding barely affected the city’s underground network itself, it completely destroyed the command centre situated near Paiporta in Valencia Sud, paralysing the transport of an average of 7.5 million monthly passengers.

Metrovalencia is currently working on a second command centre at Machado station, scheduled to begin test runs on 27 November.

To address the situation in the interim, 25 temporary bus lines have been set up. However, locals still face daily challenges when trying to use the new system.

One commuter explains that a long wait cannot always guarantee you a spot on the bus. “I’ve been waiting for about an hour or more because when it comes, you can see that it’s full and there’s no room left,” he says

Another commuter criticised the schedule, saying “there are no buses after ten o’clock. That’s why my bosses had to change my working hours so that I could leave before ten o’clock. Otherwise, I won’t get home.”

Metrovalencia hopes to have some of its lines back up and running by the beginning of December. However, some stations will take at least five or six months to come back online.

Meanwhile, the regional government has already spent almost €50m on repairs.

Schools begin to reopen

Parents, teachers and soldiers applauded as children from the town of Benetusser finally returned to school, which had been closed for nearly a month.

Parents in the schoolyard shared their joy. One mother said, “It is exciting because after everything that has happened, it was exciting for the children and for us to be able to return to normality.”

On the other hand, schools in towns such as Alfafar and Catarroja have yet to reopen, with army barracks being used as temporary classrooms to accommodate the students.

Many schools will have to be rebuilt. Currenly, 13 have been declared as being in a “catastrophic” state.

Storm DANA hit Spain on 29 October and was one of the deadliest natural disasters in the country’s history, claiming the lives of over 224 people.