The Government is trying to use all its assets to lower the temperature of the railway crisis before the electoral campaign begins the day after tomorrow. Demobilizing the workers who have called strikes on November 17 and 23 is the priority. In parallel and coinciding with the funeral of the victims in Urda (Toledo), already calm the indignation of the victims of accidents like Adamuz (Córdoba) with the little progress in the investigations of the catastrophe nine months later and the lack of human resources - only three investigators for the 115 victims - in the body that must assume these functions, the AITAT.
The response to this discomfort has ceased to be the promise of initiatives to be signed by the Council of Ministers and published in the BOE as a battery of measures called Royal Decree-Law of urgent measures to reinforce operational safety in railway transport and the social protection of professionals in the sector.
Yesterday Minister Carlos Body did not appear, but the Government announced an advocate for victims of public transport accidents; new powers and competencies for the State Railway Safety Agency (AESF) and labor and social regulations demanded by the unions. In one week, these requests have made more progress than in nine months.
Some of the measures repeat those promised by Óscar Puente nine months ago to demobilize the strike called by the railway unions after the Adamuz disaster and its disastrous explanation by the Government. For example, the so-called fair culture, which will allow personnel with operational safety functions to communicate risks to railway safety. Also the right of workers to adopt necessary and proportionate measures in situations of serious and imminent risk to safety. That is, drivers may stop a train if they consider a situation that occurs on the track to be a serious risk.
Puente also promised in February to study early retirements for Ouigo and Iryo train drivers (they are already validated in Renfe) with the application of the retirement reduction coefficients provided for in article 3 of RD 2621/1986. Yesterday, Corps directly included this request in the Royal Decree-Law, extending the Social Security regime provided for in article 3 of RD 2621/1986 to the personnel of railway companies that operate on interoperable lines and/or on the General Interest Railway Network. The text undertakes to study extending it to other professions that may be considered difficult (road personnel, workshops...), as requested by UGT and CCOO.
The machinists, who yesterday held a full day of strike, responded to the commitment of the vice president of the Government expressed in the BOE with a postponement of their next call for tomorrow, Thursday. Semaf, its union, is very aware of the pressure it can exert in the electoral campaign and postponed it to the 23rd, six days before the polls. They will only accept "real facts materialized through their direct approval and entry into force", and not the signing of commitments, "not even if they are signed by a minister."
The demobilization of the sector is the task that Carlos Body has set to work on since the first minute of assuming the portfolio of the resigned Óscar Puente. The next day he accepted the resignation of the president of Adif and met with the train drivers to listen to their demands. Yesterday it was expected that the Council of Ministers would announce the appointment of a new president of Adif, but it seems that, at the threshold of a more than likely change of Government, it is difficult to find solvent candidates willing to burn themselves in a period of just over two months.
The new powers of the State Railway Safety Agency (AESF) to reinforce its task and thus calm the demands of the unions, who asked that Adif be intervened due to a "serious risk" in how it was facing its management, also come from behind. In February, Puente agreed to increase the structure of the organization with the creation of 50 new positions, including two new general subdirectorates. Yesterday, the Corps included more powers for this institution, which, as it has warned on more than one occasion, does not have enough inspectors to carry out its work.
Finally, the vice president included in the package of measures a new body called the Ombudsman for Victims of Collective Transport Accidents. In reality, the functions of this office were already included in an initiative approved in 2025 with the very long name of Observatory for the coordination and prevention of crises and care for victims of accidents and incidents in modes of transport. With the rank of General Subdirectorate, the observatory now coordinates the ministry in terms of care for victims and their families, as provided for in the regulations. It also performs other crisis prevention functions.
