Ynés watches a glass of water on the table in her seat with the gravity that others reserve for an eclipse. The train crosses the plateau and the liquid barely trembles.
“Grandpa, why doesn't the train ever leave its rails?”
He is about to say, “Because the train is safe.” But remember the fatal accidents in Adamuz (Córdoba), Gelida (Barcelona) and Urda (Toledo), all in 2026, and understand that a reassuring phrase is not always a good explanation. As we already argued when examining the lessons of the past, security improves when each failure leaves a verifiable lesson, not a louder gathering.
“Because there are many people working to make it that way,” responds his grandfather. Although we still have things to learn.
In 2024, the year for which we have the most recent data available, Spain reported 57 “significant” rail accidents, compared to 77 in 2023. That category includes, in addition to collisions and derailments, other serious events, such as accidents at level crossings or with people on the tracks. It does not mean that 57 passenger trains have suffered a catastrophe.
But everything must be put into perspective. Counting events without knowing how many kilometers the trains travel is like comparing two roads by their collisions without asking how many vehicles pass through them. The Spanish rate in 2024 was about 0.28 significant accidents per million train-kilometers, lower than that of 2023. Previous years, however, had shown a rebound and, today, the tragedies of 2026 force us to examine everything with renewed demands.
In the European Union, only 2.1% of those killed in train accidents in 2024 were passengers. The majority were people who had accessed the road without authorization or level crossing users.
Precisely for this reason, risks must be distinguished: protecting a passenger, a worker and someone crossing a road requires different measures.
“And who prevents the train from taking the wrong path?” Ynés wants to know. The question is good. Interlocks – safety devices that prevent two incompatible actions, movements or states from occurring at the same time – prevent incompatible routes: ASFA Digital supervises certain speed controls and signals, while ETCS, where it is installed and operational, monitors the progress of the train and can order braking.
For its part, the LZB signaling system, used on the Madrid-Seville high-speed line, continuously monitors speed and traffic authorizations. In Urda, its interruption initially caused the automatic stopping of the trains; The investigation must clarify why subsequent protective measures did not prevent the collision.
Added to all this are machinists, control centers, inspections and procedures. Security is an agreement between barriers that politely distrust each other.
On the other hand, from a purely mechanical perspective, steel also needs maintenance. Each wheel subjects the rail and its welds to repeated stresses; certain defects can grow without giving visible signs from the window. Ultrasounds allow us to look for discontinuities inside, similar to an ultrasound, while other techniques examine the geometry, surface and vibrations of the track.
What if a machine finds something strange? Sensors and artificial intelligence can help point out anomalies, although an algorithm can also get things wrong with admirable decimal precision. It is necessary to verify the alert, inspect, repair or limit circulation when appropriate. It is not enough to know a lot: you have to act in time, even when stopping a train is uncomfortable.
“Would we be safer by car?” Ynés asks. According to the European Railway Agency, between 2012 and 2021, the risk of death of a train passenger was 0.077 per billion passenger kilometers. For a car occupant, for the same distance traveled, it was about thirty times greater. These are historical European averages, not a promise about the next trip, and will need to be re-evaluated from time to time.
The railway also has an environmental advantage: in European analyses, its average emissions per passenger kilometer are significantly lower than those of automobiles and airplanes. Occupancy, electricity and the route will, of course, influence this income statement.
On the other hand, although it is true that significant accidents have increased recently, even when considering kilometers traveled, this does not necessarily mean that the individual risk of dying as a passenger has increased in the same proportion. The train remains one of the safest means of transportation.
The train begins to brake. The water in the glass tilts forward and Ynés asks the question that her grandfather had not anticipated:
“If we have so many systems, why do we find out what failed after an accident?”
Sometimes only then can we rebuild the entire chain. For this reason, the causes of each tragedy must be established through independent investigations, not through gossip. But it is not necessary to wait for the next accident to better inspect the welds, attend to the alerts, rehearse the protocols and correct what we already know can fail.
They arrive at the station. Ynés looks at the glass: it hasn't lost a drop while she hasn't stopped asking questions about the trains she's seen on the news. But, perhaps, the best news about a train is, precisely, arriving at its destination without having given any.
