What we know after Spain's deadliest rail crash in a decade
On the morning of October 28, two high-speed trains travelling in the same direction from Madrid to Seville collided in a rural area of Toledo province, between villages near Urda. Spain's rail infrastructure operator Adif said a state-owned RENFE train slammed into the rear of a stationary private IRYO train. Two carriages at the tail of the IRYO train derailed and fell down an embankment, while the front of the RENFE train was shredded. Rescue workers spent the day searching the wreckage for survivors and bodies, and officials warned the toll could rise.
The regional government of Castilla-La Mancha confirmed at least 68 dead and said 58 people were receiving treatment in hospitals, including 15 in serious condition. Authorities said 397 passengers were aboard the RENFE train and 147 aboard the IRYO train, among them one baby. Spain's health minister Monica Garcia Gomez called the crash a significant tragedy and said the nation should brace for more bad news. With 68 confirmed dead and well over 100 injured, it is already the country's worst train crash in more than a decade.
Transport Minister Oscar Puente said the signalling safety system on a 63-kilometre stretch stopped working at about 8:30 a.m. because of a computer malfunction, forcing at least six services in the area to a standstill. The line then operated under human control. The central command centre told the RENFE train to resume its route without any speed restriction, and it collided with the stopped IRYO train at 8:53 a.m. Puente stressed that the train drivers were not to blame.
Puente described the instruction to proceed as inexplicable, emphasising there was no justification for clearing a train at full speed while the protection system was down. Government sources said human error by an operator at Adif, specifically at the Atocha control centre, was the likely cause. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez travelled to Urda with the interior minister and said the transport ministry was working to establish the causes, origin and reasons of the terrible tragedy. No final investigation report has been published.
Former labour minister Fatima Banez was in the last carriage of the IRYO train and was among the dead. It is Spain's second deadly high-speed collision this year involving the same two operators on the same Madrid-Andalusia corridor: in January, two high-speed trains collided near Adamuz in Cordoba province, killing 46 people and injuring more than 150, and a commuter train derailed near Barcelona days later. One passenger told radio station COPE he heard a massive roar lasting about 10 seconds, as if the train were about to derail, and saw a wrecked train through the right-hand window.
Sanchez announced three days of national mourning. Traffic on the Madrid-Seville high-speed line was suspended, numerous services cancelled, and Renfe halted ticket sales on the line until December 13. The crash is the deadliest since 80 people died near Santiago de Compostela in 2013. Preliminary findings in the January crash pointed to a broken rail, and the repetition of two disasters within months has reopened debate over railway maintenance investment, ageing systems and operating procedures.