A collision between two high-speed passenger trains in Andalusia, in southern Spain, Jan. 18 left 45 people dead and at least 150 injured. In the week after the disaster, three other crashes took place. The Spanish Railroad Engineers and Trainmen’s Union (SEMAF) responded by calling a nationwide strike Feb. 9-11 to protest the “constant deterioration of the rail network.”
For months SEMAF has been demanding the rail bosses take steps to repair problems on Spain’s rail trackage.
One of the trains, running between Málaga and Madrid, derailed near Amaduz in Córdoba province, then hit a train running on the adjacent track, traveling from Madrid to Huelva. Both trains derailed, with the second plunging down an embankment.
Some passengers got free of the wreckage, and firefighters and others rescued those still trapped. People came from nearby towns and helped get the injured to the hospital, and blankets and aid to the crash site.
The train traveling to Madrid was operated by the Italian national rail company Iryo, the second by the Spanish state-owned rail company Renfe. The rail infrastructure in Spain is controlled and managed by the state-owned ADIF Alta Velocidad company.
After the crash Transport Minister Óscar Puente dismissed the possibility it was caused by a failure to maintain the track, claiming the high-speed line had been “completely renovated” recently.
Days later Puente was forced to backtrack, after the government agency charged with investigating the disaster issued a preliminary finding that pointed to an over 15-inch crack in the track. Iñaki Barrón, the head of the investigation, disputed the government’s claim the track had undergone recent renovation. Black boxes from both trains have yet to be examined.
Rail workers and their union are looking for ways to take greater control over safety. SEMAF had written to the company responsible for maintaining the track last August, warning about severe wear and tear across the country, including in the area where the derailment occurred. The union also pointed to pot holes, bumps and imbalances in overhead power lines that were causing damage to trains.
“It’s a vicious cycle,” Diego Martin, SEMAF general secretary, told Reuters. “If there are defects in the track they are transmitted to the train, and defects in the train are also transmitted to the track.”
“We cannot nor should we question our network,” the transport minister told the press after the union announced the strike. He admitted the network is “not infallible,” but claimed, “it is a great transport system.”
Three more accidents in the days after the deadly collision gave the lie to that claim. A train engineer was killed when a commuter train near Barcelona derailed Jan. 20 after a containment wall collapsed onto the track following heavy rainfall. The same day, another train in Catalonia derailed because of a rock on the line. Luckily no one died there.
Catalan drivers walk out
The following day 134 of the 140 train drivers on the Rodalies commuter rail network in Catalonia refused to work, regardless of assurances by ADIF that the tracks were safe.
After six hours of talks, an agreement was reached between the union, the Catalan government, ADIF and Renfe for track inspections along 13 key routes. They were carried out by train drivers, union representatives and technicians assigned by the company. SEMAF refused to set a time for service to resume, saying this would occur progressively as each of the inspections was done, along with any needed repairs.
“In these sections, every time storms occur, numerous elements fall onto the tracks — walls, rocks, trees, etc. — a circumstance that could be avoided through adequate preventative plans,” SEMAF said.
Elsewhere in southeast Spain the arm of a crane next to the tracks struck the windows of a passing commuter train Jan. 22, injuring six passengers.
Spain has a bigger high-speed network than any country other than China, with some 40 million passengers using it in 2024. But government negligence and rail bosses’ thirst for profit have led to increasingly treacherous conditions.
In the wake of the worldwide 2008-09 financial crisis, Spanish government debt spiraled up, and successive governments moved to slash spending, including on rail infrastructure, under pressure from the European Union. Investment in rail infrastructure in 2024 was less than a third of what it was in 2009. Between 2018 and 2022, the vast majority of infrastructure spending went into new track, not into maintenance, renewal and upgrading of existing lines.
The government’s own figures show reports of deterioration and breaks in rail trackage rose from 440 in 2015 to 716 in 2024. Derailments correspondingly increased over that same period.
All three of the country’s main union federations are backing the Feb. 9-11 strike call.
SEMAF points out that rail workers notify authorities about the need for track maintenance they see on the job, but these reports go “without response or action for months, and even years.” It’s now seeking measures to force rail bosses to respond in a timely way.