Colau proposes rail state pact and Renfe-Adif merger after Urda crash

A rail pact after the election

On Monday, 2 November, Ada Colau, Frente Amplio's candidate for the presidency of the government and a former mayor of Barcelona, called for a state pact on rail that would bring together as many parties as possible, setting aside partisan differences. She made the proposal to reporters in Barcelona after meeting representatives of the main rail unions. Colau wants the parties to start work straight after the general election on 29 November, and she described rail as an essential public service that must be "safe, sustainable and accessible". Her call for a pact runs alongside her demand that Transport Minister Óscar Puente take "political responsibilities" for the crash. She has asked for concrete solutions rather than only blame.

Colau pressed the point about timing in her remarks to reporters.

“It is a priority that we meet the day after the elections.”

The Urda crash and its aftermath

The accident happened on Wednesday, 28 October, near Urda in Toledo province, and El Periódico reports that it killed 69 people. Colau cited a remark by Pedro Sánchez, who called two accidents this serious in less than a year on the same high-speed stretch unacceptable, and she linked it to the earlier accident at Adamuz earlier this year. Puente has not resigned. He is due to appear before Congress on Tuesday, 3 November, and Colau said he should explain in parliament the technical details he has already given at press conferences. La Vanguardia reports that Colau and the unions objected to the leak of recordings from the accident and to the singling out of one of the train drivers, which she called inadmissible while asking for an investigation into the source of the leak.

Merging Renfe and Adif

Colau proposes reunifying Renfe and Adif into one large public operator, backed by an independent audit of the whole system. She argues that the split creates coordination problems and points to the French model, which combines both functions in a single public operator.

“It was a mistake to separate them; it makes no sense for an essential public service to have two operators with different protocols for critical situations.”

She also wants maintenance outsourcing reversed, staffing increased and continuous training given to workers. Her pact should not focus only on high speed, and she wants rail to receive the same priority, including the Rodalies network in Catalonia.

Funding and the airport plan

Frente Amplio proposes using the 13,000 million euros that the PSOE planned for airport expansion on the rail network instead. Colau said Spain does not need more tourists, since cities already show signs of mass tourism saturation. One report, El Periódico, gives the airport figure as 13 million euros, while the other reports cite 13,000 million, so the discrepancy remains unresolved in the coverage.

Campaign reactions

The crash has reshaped the pre-campaign. Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the PP, met the party's national executive committee at Génova and adopted a management tone that set him apart from the confrontation seen in recent days. He said the party was offering something different.

“We offer something else: management, rigour and experience.”

Pedro Sánchez spoke at the World in Progress forum of the PRISA Group in Barcelona on Monday. Coverage of the polls reports the PSOE falling and the PP gaining since the crash, though no figures are given. Vox keeps its focus on removing Sánchez from the Moncloa.