WorldPosted at: Oct 30 2026 10:20PM


Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez admits public confidence in national rail network failing after deadly collision

Madrid, Oct 30 (UNI) Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has acknowledged that public confidence in the country's high-speed rail network has been shaken after Wednesday's train collision killed at least 69 people and injured more than 100, prompting growing scrutiny of railway safety and calls for political accountability.
Sánchez said on Friday that his government was working to provide information to victims' families as quickly as possible. Those killed included people from at least 23 foreign countries. He also pledged a thorough investigation into the causes of what was Spain's second deadly train collision this year.
The crash occurred shortly before 9am on Wednesday, when a state-owned Renfe train collided with a private Iryo service travelling from Madrid towards Andalucía. After the Iryo train came to a halt, the Renfe service struck its rear, forcing several carriages off the tracks near Urda, in Castilla-La Mancha.
The disaster came nine months after another collision involving Renfe and Iryo trains near Adamuz, in Andalucía, killed 46 people and injured dozens.
"It's unacceptable for a country like Spain – which has such a powerful high-speed rail system – to experience two accidents of this nature and magnitude within a single year," Sánchez said.
"Public trust in the high-speed system has been broken; the government's responsibility goes beyond diagnosing the causes – it must also offer solutions to ensure that a tragedy of this scale doesn't happen again."
Transport Minister Óscar Puente, who is facing mounting pressure to resign, rejected calls to step down, saying his priority was to establish what happened and restore confidence in the railway system.
"My duty now isn't to talk about whether or not I carry on with my job; it's to solve the problems, clarify what happened and offer clear explanations," he said. Puente added that any failures of organisation or control identified by the investigation would be addressed and that individuals found responsible would face action.
The minister again pointed to the Madrid control centre of state infrastructure operator Adif as a possible source of responsibility. He said the LZB signalling system, which automatically stops trains when the track ahead is occupied, had failed before the collision, although such malfunctions were not uncommon. When the system was unavailable, responsibility for controlling train movements reverted to human operators.
Puente said an Adif operator had instructed the Renfe train to resume its journey at normal speed rather than follow safety procedures limiting its speed to 40kph (25mph), allowing drivers to identify potential hazards ahead.
A preliminary investigation report released on Thursday found that the Renfe train was travelling at between 160kph and 200kph when it struck the Iryo service.
"The sequence of malfunctions, instructions, and actions eventually led to the collision, in the absence of the necessary mitigating barriers," the report said.
Puente identified the operator as a 48-year-old man with current training and two years of experience working in control centres. He had been responsible for the area since February and was familiar with the sector, the minister said.
Railway unions have challenged the government's account, arguing that excessive workloads and staffing shortages are making the system increasingly difficult to operate safely.
"We believe [the minister] is blaming a mere worker who was working under increasingly poor conditions," Raquel Ayllón, a spokesperson for the railway traffic controllers' union SCF, told the Associated Press. "Human error isn't incomprehensible. What is incomprehensible is that the safety system is regularly failing."
The crash has also intensified political pressure on Sánchez's minority government ahead of next month's snap general election. The conservative People's Party (PP), led by Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has repeatedly demanded Puente's resignation and held both the minister and prime minister politically responsible for the two accidents.
"Whoever has failed in their duty to run the transport ministry properly must bear the consequences," Feijóo said. "And the person who appointed them – and kept them in their post – even more so. If they do not resign, we will remove them at the ballot box."
Ada Colau, the former Barcelona mayor who now leads the left-wing Frente Amplio coalition contesting the election, also called for Puente to leave office, saying his resignation should happen as soon as possible.
Asked whether the latest collision would affect the election campaign, Puente said he had given the matter "zero thought", adding that he did not believe anyone expected him to be focused on the campaign at a time when the country was dealing with the aftermath of the disaster.
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