Court experts flag three track deformations at Adamuz crash site as Adif seeks repairs

Experts question urgent repairs

The three court-appointed experts investigating the Adamuz rail accident of 18 January 2026, which killed 46 people, filed a written report dated 28 October with the judge in Montoro (Córdoba). It responds to a request from Adif, the public railway infrastructure manager, lodged on 20 October 2026 for judicial authorization to carry out tamping work (bateo) between kilometre points 316+900 and 317+500, including switches 631 and 632. The experts report at least three deformations in the track, two at IL level (intervention limit) and one at AL level (alert limit). They say these resemble readings from inspections in October 2025 near PK 318+681, where the weld later broke. The experts do not oppose the work, which they consider necessary for safety, but say they have several doubts about it.

Doubts over the renovated section

The experts find it at least curious that the sections Adif wants to work on received the same renovation as the accident point. Those works were accepted on 19 December 2025, 30 days before the crash, and remain under warranty. They ask the judge to order Adif to hand over the inspection reports made before acceptance and during construction, because they hold only the results from October 2025. They also say they have no documentation of the emergency works carried out after the crash, which rebuilt the entire infrastructure. In March the judge had already asked Adif to refrain from maintenance work in the area.

Recorder search and upcoming tests

The Guardia Civil told the judge in an official note that it found the two connection cabinets behind the Alvia's DEUTA data recorders, but not the recorders themselves, and it described locating them as impossible. The devices were fixed to a polyester door in cars 1 and 4 of the Alvia, one in the cab and one at the rear. Technicians from ACTREN, the rail maintenance firm, inspected the wreckage thoroughly. The juridical recorders (JRU), recovered in March, will be accessed and decoded on 12 November, after which technicians have ten days to submit their conclusions. Further tests will examine the ballast and concrete sleepers of the line.

Political reaction to the Urda crash

Iñaki Barrón, spokesperson for the follow-up committee of the Urda accident and a former president of the CIAF, which began the independent investigation into Adamuz, said on 4 November that the situation is not normal. The Urda accident took place on 28 October, nine months after Adamuz, on the high-speed network.

“It is not normal that on the same line in the same year two accidents of such gravity occur.”

Barrón criticised early hypotheses that attributed the Adamuz crash to human error, a line former transport minister Óscar Puente had pursued. He argued that the question is the traffic control system Adif uses on high-speed lines, and he called for control centres staffed by operators' representatives able to take decisions.

“The control post is not an impregnable fiefdom of the traffic staff, it has to be a centre where railway decisions are taken.”

Barrón also called for training so that staff can work in exceptional conditions without being under stress.