Spanish Train Driver Clocks Out Of Work With Passengers Still On Train

Spanish Train Driver Clocks Out Of Work: A train driver in Spain reached the end of his shift and decided to clock out and go home.

The only problem was the train loaded with over 100 passengers was 300 kilometers away from it’s destination.

The Renfe train, which was en route from Santander to Madrid suddenly stopped outside the town of Osorno at 9:15 pm on Tuesday night just two hours into its journey. The passengers were told the train had stopped for technical reasons but later found out that the driver had finished his shift and was refusing to work overtime.

The passengers were told they had to wait until alternative transportation could be found. A couple of hours later, a replacement bus service arrived to transport passengers to Madrid which they reportedly arrived at successfully by 2;30am.

Renfe is currently in a labor dispute with its train drivers who have taken strike action to protest a shortage of workers but a spokesperson from the train drivers union said the train driver was not staging a protest. Instead, he was required to clock out to satisfy legal requirements.

“Drivers are not allowed at the controls for longer than five and a half hours straight,” spokesman Carlos Segura had said. “He repeatedly told headquarters that he was coming to the end of his shift and would go into overtime but received no answer, so he had to stop.”

He also added that the train company “should have had a substitute driver lined up, but that didn’t happen”

Renfe has apologized for the incident and gave out full refunds to all 109 passengers of the train.

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