The current third vice-president and Minister of Infrastructure, Vicente Martínez Mus, has defended his actions during the storm on October 29th, stating that all his decisions were guided by the information available at the time and by established protocols. These statements were made during the storm's investigation commission at the Corts Valencianes, following the disclosure of messages from the Consell's WhatsApp group.
Martínez Mus faced criticism when it emerged that he attended the Valencian employers' association awards gala at 6:00 PM, despite reported incidents on the Metrovalencia service. The minister attempted to justify that the information he had at the time was not alarming enough to cancel his attendance.
However, one of the messages sent to the Consell group at 6:03 PM indicated he was aware of at least two serious incidents: "At FGV we have various incidents that are being resolved. The most important is the closure of the section between Picassent and Castelló due to serious damage to the track that will prevent circulation not only today but in the coming days. Furthermore, at this moment, at the Omet (Picassent) Halt, a train with 10 passengers is trapped. They are in the process of rescuing them with the local police," the message read.
Martínez Mus, who already led the Ministry of Infrastructure under former president Carlos Mazón and retained the portfolio with president Juan Francisco Pérez Llorca, intervened seven times in the Consell chat that day. At 6:03 PM, he sent the message about the incidents at FGV. Later, at 8:37 PM, he warned that "at the FGV headquarters, 30 people are stranded and unable to leave," including Javier Sendra, Miguel Ángel Ivorra, Sabina Galindo, and Alfonso Novo.
In his appearance, the minister explained that "being at the gala allows one to be active on Whatsapp" and that he received continuous information about the situation at the FGV headquarters. He stated that he informed the regional secretary of Infrastructure and that, after the gala, he was heading there but could not arrive due to the downpour. He eventually spent the night in his Conselleria office, monitoring the news.
Sources from Infrastructure explained to elDiario.es that the closure of line 1 section during rain is "relatively common" due to drainage issues inherited from the old 'trenet' era. They added that shortly after the 6:03 PM message, the metropolitan area was flooding, leaving several high-ranking officials with the minister at the FGV headquarters, although he could not reach it.
According to FGV's incident report, the most serious incidents began to be recorded from 7:05 PM onwards, when the Poyo ravine in l'Horta Sud started to overflow. At that time, the driver of train 1135 warned that the water was reaching the track level around Paiporta station, and that future journeys might become impossible. Meanwhile, Adif had already suspended high-speed train traffic (at 5:45 PM) and commuter trains (between 6:20 PM and 6:50 PM).
