Transport Minister resigns – Spain draws conclusions from train accident with 69 dead

Almost a week after the train accident with 69 deaths in Spain, Transport Minister Óscar Puente surprisingly announced his resignation. At the end of his hearing before the parliamentary committee in Madrid, he also announced late in the evening that he would no longer run in the early parliamentary elections on November 29th.

The resignation demanded by all opposition parties came as a surprise, as he had been ruled out several times in the past few days by Puente and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

Puente said: "A minister cannot remain in office after two accidents of this seriousness in less than a year. It is a question of political dignity, consistency and political empathy."

Two high-speed trains collided on Wednesday last week near the municipality of Urda, around 130 kilometers south of Madrid. A train operated by the state railway company Renfe ran into a stationary train operated by the private operator Iryo from behind. It was the second serious train accident in Spain in just nine months. In January, 46 people were killed in a collision between two high-speed trains in Adamuz, Andalusia.

Fewer trains will run between Madrid and Seville in the future

While in the case of Adamuz, one of the causes is a broken track, the investigation into the accident in Urda focuses primarily on the failure of the LZB train control system and possible errors in the instructions from the control center of the network operator Adif. LZB and comparable systems are intended to ensure that trains come to a stop automatically if signals are ignored or the permitted speeds are not maintained.

Radio recordings suggest that a train driver was ordered to resume normal service even though the train control system was still out of service and the other train was still on the route.

The number of trains between Madrid and Seville will be reduced until the new European train control system ERTMS goes into operation there, as Transport Minister Óscar Puente explained. If the current LZB system fails, a second employee in the control center will have to check and confirm the instructions to the train drivers. This is intended to prevent trains from continuing to travel despite unclear route conditions.

The control centers should also have more staff and better working conditions. The government also decided to cap prices for alternative means of transport during the closure of the Madrid-Seville route involved in the accident. This is intended to protect travelers from excessive costs as a result of train cancellations.

On Tuesday, Madrid decided on measures to improve safety in rail transport. The left-wing government announced in the afternoon that an aid package of 30 million euros for victims and relatives was also approved at the weekly Council of Ministers meeting.

Aid package provides for advances on compensation

The aid package includes direct state aid, advances on subsequent compensation payments and a doubling of benefits from statutory passenger insurance. Victims and their relatives should be looked after through specially set up contact points. There is also a special provision for temporary incapacity for work for injured people.

All 69 fatalities - 40 men and 29 women - have now been identified, authorities said. Germans and minors are therefore not included. Among the dead are 54 Spanish nationals and four US citizens. Two each came from Japan and Australia, the others from Canada, France, the Czech Republic, Portugal, Argentina, Mexico and Tunisia. Of the total of around 200 injured, 37 are still being treated in hospitals.