Rail transport | Unresolved safety problems on the Spanish train network

During the rescue work at the accident site Photo: AFP/Oscar del Pozo Things could hardly have been worse than a new train accident with 69 confirmed dead and more than 200 injured so far for the Social Democratic government under Pedro Sánchez before the early elections on November 29th. The fact that a high-speed AVE train operated by the state-owned Renfe ran into a stationary train operated by the private operator Iryo in Urda near Toledo early on Wednesday at a speed of 160 to 200 kilometers per hour highlights the safety problems in the world's second-largest high-speed network, which Spain has and with which it is increasingly overwhelmed.

On the same route, on January 18th, the rear part of an AVE derailed and collided with an oncoming Iryo. In this worst train accident in 13 years near Adamuz in Andalusia, 48 people lost their lives and more than 150 were injured. Now the question arises as to whether we are dealing with serious negligence, for which the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, is being held responsible. Not only the opposition is demanding his resignation, but also trade unions, including the government-affiliated workers' commissions (CCOO).

The modern safety system has not yet been fully installed on the accident route between Madrid and Seville.

Their demand has to do with the fact that the necessary measures to prevent such “accidents” have not been taken in the last nine months. The train drivers' union Semaf went on strike on October 29th, particularly because of the safety problems. This will happen again on November 10th and 12th. On November 11th, a general strike against the conditions, especially because of the housing crisis, is expected to paralyze the country.

Trade unions were particularly angry that Puente immediately spoke of “human error” without any investigation. In doing so, he – once again – blamed employees for fatal consequences instead of taking responsibility himself. Neither does Prime Minister Sánchez, who should have fired the incompetent Puente long ago. He is responsible for general train chaos.

In Catalonia, the train network often fails completely, sometimes even for weeks. Citing human error as the cause is common. In the accident in Adamuz, a welder was said to have been responsible for a broken weld on the rail. But no tests were carried out or the relatively obvious problem was not identified - this rather indicates system failure. This was also evident in the worst train accident to date 13 years ago in the northwest. An express train flew out of a curve shortly before Santiago de Compostela in Galicia and 80 people lost their lives.

At the time, the driver was blamed for this because he drove too quickly into the curve. His two-and-a-half year prison sentence was confirmed in January. The person responsible for the rail network operator Adif was previously convicted, but was recently acquitted. Adif had not installed the ERTMS safety system in the last few kilometers, which allowed the train driver to make the mistake. Otherwise the system would have automatically braked the train and the driver would not have been able to make the mistake.

ERTMS has also not yet been fully installed on the high-speed accident route between the capital Madrid and Seville. The EU had repeatedly demanded this and supported it with many millions. The transition should be completed in 2025. According to the newspaper “Artículo 14,” enforcement from Madrid has even been reported to Brussels.

At Urda, however, the obsolete predecessor, the LZB system, has been in use since the 1990s. Platoon leaders had repeatedly reported that there were always problems there, including Renfe platoon leader Antonio Acedo, who now lost his life. By slamming on the brakes he had prevented even worse consequences.

Iryo boss Fabrizio Favara also recently reported on the LZB problems in an investigative commission on October 5th. If the connection between the train signal and the LZB ground signal is interrupted, the train stops. "He can no longer move, it will take quite a long time until the connection is restored and operations can resume," he told Favara in parliament.

That was the problem in Urda. When the LZB failed, all trains were stopped as planned. There are also human errors that would not have been possible with the new system. The AVE train driver was instructed from the control center in Madrid to resume “normal travel,” conversation recordings show.

Since the Iryo was at a distance of 25 kilometers, the AVE should only have been allowed to travel slowly "on sight" according to the protocols. And in the 22 minutes before the impact, the Iryo train driver had informed the control center that she could no longer move her train. That had no consequence. ERTMS would have stopped the AVE again because the next section of the route was still occupied, instead of letting it drive into the stationary Iryo.

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