In January 2023, a strange railway story emerged from Asturias in northern Spain and quickly travelled far beyond the country: Spain had ordered new trains that were too large to fit through its own tunnels.

The story concerned the former FEVE meter-gauge network serving Asturias, Cantabria and other parts of northern Spain. Renfe had commissioned new rolling stock from CAF, but the train specifications turned out to conflict with clearances around old tunnels and other infrastructure.

There was, however, a major difference between the viral version and what actually happened. When the problem became public in 2023, there was no completed fleet of 31 oversized trains. No train using the incompatible dimensions had been manufactured.

That much was already clear from the original investigation. But in May 2026, Spain’s Court of Auditors published a detailed audit of the procurement. Its findings revealed a deeper story: the real failure was not simply the size of a train.