Train collision in Spain: The country faces a black series with seven fatal train accidents since 2013

This Thursday, Spain begins three days of national mourning after a collision between two trains, Wednesday October 28, which left at least 68 victims and more than a hundred injured, approximately 150 km south of Madrid.

The Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, spoke of a breakdown in a signaling system which caused an automatic stop in the sector of the two damaged trains, then an “inexplicable” restart for one of them, which led to the collision.

In fifteen years, Spain has experienced several major railway accidents which have launched a debate on the maintenance of the network. As early as October 16, the drivers' union (Semaf) announced a strike (ongoing) to denounce the deterioration of railway safety as well as the lack of human and material resources.

With 4,000 kilometers of railway tracks, the Spanish high-speed rail network is the second largest in the world, after that of China.

On January 18, a collision had already occurred on the same line which connects Madrid to Andalusia. It occurred in Adamuz, between two high-speed trains, one operated by the private company Iryo and the other by Renfe, the national company. 46 passengers then lost their lives in a particularly violent collision between the trains traveling at more than 200 km/h.

It would be a broken rail or an undetected welding failure that would be to blame, according to the conclusions put forward by the Rail Accident Investigation Commission.

On September 10, 2023 in Montmeló (Catalonia), a group of seven young people were mowed down by a commuter train when they had recklessly crossed the railway tracks to go to a techno music festival. The train could not have stopped in time. Four young people from the gang died.

On February 8, 2019, a head-on collision between two regional trains occurred in Castellgalí (Barcelona). Both trains run on the same track. The victim is one of the two drivers. A combination of signaling failures has been put forward to help explain the tragedy.

On November 20, 2018, a commuter train derailed causing one death and 49 injuries in Vacarisses, a suburb of Barcelona, ​​after a landslide caused by heavy rains, leading to the collapse of a retaining wall.

On September 9, 2016, an international railcar linking Vigo to Porto (Portugal) derailed near the O Porriño station (Galicia), hitting an electricity pylon and a technical building. The death toll is four dead and 49 injured. The excessive speed of the train is believed to be the cause of this accident.

On the evening of July 24, a high-speed train suddenly derailed upon arrival in Santiago de Compostela, before crashing into a surrounding wall located four kilometers from the city. The toll was very heavy: 80 people died and 140 were injured.

Excessive speed combined with the absence of an automatic braking system on this section was blamed. A driver and a former manager of the Spanish network were sentenced in 2024 to two and a half years in prison.