Chaos in Spain as locals and tourists left stranded for 14 hours in area loved by Brits

Train passengers were stranded for 14 hours after a power cut in Spain. (Image: Getty Archive)

Locals and tourists were left stranded in Spain when a train with over 300 passengers was stranded after an overhead wire lost power. The Murica to Malaga train was scheduled to reach its final destination at 10.26pm on Monday (June 30), but ended up being towed to Toledo by a diesel-powered locomotive.

Passengers were stranded for over 14 hours, according to local media. The power failure was still affecting services on Tuesday (July 1), with only a handful of trains leaving Malaga for Madrid's Atocha station and none leaving the capital's main rail hub for Andalucia, The Olive Press reports. Tickets from Madrid to Malaga were on sale by Wednesday (July 2) for same-day travel, according to Renfe's website.

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More than 300 passengers were stuck with the train towed to Toledo. (Image: Getty)

The travel chaos comes after massive power cuts crippled services across Spain and Portugal in April. Tens of millions of people were affected, and trains were stopped, disrupting businesses and critical infrastructure.

Spain lost 15 gigawatts of electricity—or about 60% of its supply—in a power loss blamed on technical and planning errors, which meant the grid was unable to handle a surge in voltage.

Ecological Transition Minister Sara Aagesen, who manages Spain's energy policy, said in June that a voltage surge led to small grid failures, mainly in the south of Spain.

She said this then affected larger grid failures and brought the system down in the two countries. She ruled out that the failure was due to a cyberattack.

The minister said several technical causes contributed to the event on April 28, including "poor planning" by Spain's grid operator, Red Eléctrica.

It had failed to find a replacement for one power plant, which was supposed to help even out fluctuations in power.

In the weeks after the blackout, citizens and experts were left wondering what triggered the event in a region not known for power cuts.

The power cut ignited a fierce debate about whether Spain's high levels of renewable power and not enough energy generated from nuclear or gas-fired power plants had something to do with the grid failing. The Spanish government has repeatedly denied this is the case.

Spain is at the forefront of Europe's transition to renewable energy, having generated nearly 57% of its electricity in 2024 from renewable energy sources such as wind, hydropower and solar. The country is also phasing out its nuclear plants.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez rebuffed such speculation and defended his country's rapid expansion of renewable energy.

He asked for patience and said his Government would not "deviate a single millimetre" from its energy transition plans, which include a goal of generating 81% of electricity from renewable sources by 2030.