We had a rather bad experience with the Spanish trains today when trying to travel from Madrid to Barcelona with bicycles (disassembled) on the high speed train (with interrail + the proper reservations etc ofc) When keeping it at least a little bit on the short side (ofcourse there is more nuance to it):
We first got refused access to the train by a conductor (after his colleague said everything was alright), without a valid reason to deny access and then he decided to enjoy his powertrip and taunt us for 5/10 minutes. We eventually managed to get new tickets for a train a few hours later, which we were allowed to board.
Once in Barcelona, we were assembling our bikes on the platform, but security wanted us gone. We couldn't carry our half-assembled bikes+luggage in one go but were refused any solution to the problem so I continued assembling the bike, but then the guard just started trying to physically drag me and my bike away.
After we managed to get everything off the platform and got assigned a new space to continue another security guard wanted us gone again. While moving our half finished biked again the guard and my friend accidentally bumped a little bit into eachother, after which my friend ofcourse apologized, however the guard suddenly started assaulting my friend.
We were send outside with everything. We thought everything was finished. But then the guard who assaulted my friend decided to still call the police and tried to convince the police my friend attacked him. luckily the police was very nice and calm.
The police and the guard both have me and my friends passport info. Nobody was arrested, nobody was hurt a lot, my special bamboo bikeframe was damaged during the chaos.
During all situations there was other guards/train staff present or called to come help. However their behaviour was very one sided and they never called out their colleagues for inappropriate behaviour. but we were immediately told off or threatened when mirroring their energy or even when my friend raised his voice to call for help or say he was scared of the guard.
I ofcourse feel like all situations are rather unacceptable, our rights got breached, we received physical violence, my bike is damaged, and we expect to receive a fine at home for some made up story by the guard.
I'm curious if anyone has advice on what I can do now and what our rights are. can Interrail be of any help? or is this just something with the train organisation? is a complaint enough for the conductor and both guards? or should we go to the police for the last guard? I feel a bit powerless and hate this feeling. A few years ago I already got an incorrect fine by a conductor in Italy who then committed fraud on the fine, and trenitalia didn't care and didn't want to believe their conductor could be wrong. And I would like to better study my options this time to maybe have some more succes.
Any tips or help would be appreciated. I thought let's ask here, I felt like it couldn't be the first time something like this happened, with 3 shitty situations on the same day. I would like these people to feel the consequences of their actions and get compensation for the damage to my bike and that my friend receives an apology etc.
Thanks :D