OMM Newsroom
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Friday that “trust in high-speed rail has been shattered” after a collision earlier this week killed at least 69 people and injured 110, Anadolu Agency reported.
Wednesday’s crash near Urda in central Spain was the country’s second major high-speed rail disaster this year. A derailment and collision near Adamuz in January killed 46 people, with preliminary findings pointing to a fractured rail.
“It is unacceptable for a country like Spain, with such a strong high-speed rail system, to suffer two accidents of these characteristics and magnitude in one year,” Sanchez said at a news conference. He pledged to “provide solutions to further strengthen the high-speed rail system so a tragedy of this kind … doesn’t happen again.”
Spain has the world’s second-largest high-speed rail network, after China, and the largest in Europe, according to the International Union of Railways.
Castile-La Mancha regional President Emiliano Garcia-Page said Friday the death toll could rise slightly as identification work continued. Authorities had received 70 missing-person reports. Of the 110 people hospitalized in the region, 39 remained admitted and were all progressing reasonably well, he said.
Signaling failure and train movement under scrutiny
Scrutiny is growing over the failures that allowed a “Renfe” high-speed train to crash into the rear of a stationary “Iryo” train on the Madrid-Seville line.
Transport Minister Oscar Puente said a technical failure in the automatic signaling system stopped several trains, prompting controllers in Madrid to take over. Similar glitches had occurred 160 times in Spain this year, he said Friday, adding that the figure was within the European Union norm.
According to Puente, a worker at the control center then authorized the “Renfe” train to proceed at normal speed — up to 200 kilometers (124 miles) per hour — despite the stationary train ahead, in violation of safety protocols.
“If there are two trains in the same block section, the train behind should not move. Second, in these conditions, if the first train moves, the train should be authorized to move at a maximum of 40 kilometers (25 miles) per hour,” Puente said.
About five minutes before the crash, the stationary train had contacted the control center to warn that it was unable to resume moving. A preliminary investigation estimated that the “Renfe” train was traveling at around 160-200 kilometers (99-124 miles) per hour when it struck the stationary train.
The investigation has not established final responsibility. Railway workers and experts have questioned whether the controller’s decision, which Puente called “inexplicable,” points to wider weaknesses.
Vicente Almenar, a “Renfe” train driver and member of the UGT union, urged caution, warning of intense pressure to speed up operations to prevent delays, Spanish news agency EFE reported.
Antonio Tobal, UGT’s safety representative at Adif, cautioned against focusing only on human error. He called for examining working conditions, organizational procedures and staff training for emergencies.
Other experts have pointed to Spain’s rapid expansion of high-speed rail and relatively low maintenance spending compared with other European countries. They have also questioned delays in replacing the Madrid-Seville line’s aging automatic signaling system with the European Rail Traffic Management System.
Fatality records across high-speed rail networks
Spain’s disasters contrast with the strong safety record of high-speed rail elsewhere. Japan’s “Shinkansen” has recorded no passenger deaths from collisions or derailments since services began in 1964.
China has had two documented fatal high-speed rail crashes, which killed 41 people. France, home to Europe’s second-largest high-speed network, has recorded 14 deaths aboard “TGV” trains in three accidents, including 11 during a test run.
The two crashes in Spain this year have killed at least 115 people. Another 80 people died in the 2013 derailment in Santiago de Compostela.
Spain’s transport minister rejected calls to resign on Friday.
