Business News
Traffic eases in Madrid as underground reopens
Jul 1, 2010, 13:46 GMT
Madrid - Traffic eased Thursday in Spain's capital Madrid, as the underground reopened after coming to a complete standstill for two days as striking employees protested wage cuts.
The underground is used daily by some 2 million commuters.
The standstill plunged the city into a traffic chaos, with jams forming and residents cramming into overcrowded buses.
Unions agreed to provide minimum services on Thursday and Friday, and to interrupt the strike for the weekend.
Half of the scheduled trains were functioning again on Thursday. Six trains were removed from circulation over allegations that their door-opening mechanisms had been manipulated.
The two days without a functioning underground system cost the city 6.4 million euros (7.9 million dollars), according to official estimates.
About 7,500 employees of the underground had been called to follow the strike.
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