Two high-speed trains collide near Urda in Spain, at least 68 dead reported

What happened on the line

An Iryo train left Atocha station in Madrid at 07:54 with 147 passengers, bound for Seville, where it was due at 10:46. The eight-car train was running at 31% capacity. Six minutes later, at 08:00, a Renfe AVE 2080 left Atocha for Seville's Santa Justa station with 378 people in seven cars, a train described as almost full. Around 08:30 the signalling system failed in the Urda section of the line in Toledo province, where the LZB automatic protection system had been in service since the route opened in 1992. The sources do not give the exact moment of impact, but the Renfe AVE ran into the back of the Iryo, which had stopped on the track.

Iryo train (left Atocha 07:54)147

Renfe AVE 2080 (left Atocha 08:00)378

Iryo train (left Atocha 07:54)

147 people

Renfe AVE 2080 (left Atocha 08:00)

378 people

Data from the article text

Ministry blames human error

Transport minister Óscar Puente attributed the crash to human error. According to El Mundo, he pointed to a worker at the Atocha control centre who ordered the Renfe train to resume running normally while the Iryo was still stopped further along the line. La Razón reports that Puente had also cited a communication failure between the network's computers. CSIF says the minister acknowledged an initial fault in the IT system yet avoided responsibility. Vicente Almenar, the UGT rail union's national lead on driving, rejected that account.

“Human errors happen when you do not have the material you need to do your job.”

Jorge Iglesias, a retired engineer who led the interoperability laboratory at Cedex, the state body that tests rail safety systems, argued that a train should not be cleared to run without its automatic protection active. He described the decision to allow it as a decision taken by someone, not a chance error.

Unions demand the minister's resignation

CSIF, Spain's largest civil service union, led by Miguel Borra, demanded Puente's resignation on 28 October. The union accused him of using a rail worker as a scapegoat and asked the government to respect the presumption of innocence of the Adif traffic manager now under investigation.

“We demand that the government respect the investigation and the presumption of innocence of the Adif traffic manager.”

CSIF also quoted Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez as acknowledging that Spain faces a second rail tragedy in less than a year. The union said Adif staff have worked shifts of up to 12 hours and five nights in a row, a problem it had raised in September.

Fatigue warnings and earlier crashes

El País reports the crash came about nine months after the Adamuz (Córdoba) accident, which killed 46 people, and after a trainee driver died in a collision at Gelida (Barcelona) in January. El Mundo reports that a letter registered on 6 May was sent by the Sindicato de Circulación Ferroviario (SCF) to Pedro María Lekuona, director of the state rail safety agency AESF. Signed by José Carlos Gutiérrez, it warned that fatigue among control centre staff could compromise safety. The union had raised the same concern in April 2021. According to the union, Adif approved the relevant technical instruction only in November 2025 and did so without consulting worker representatives.

Open questions

Early reports said the driver of the Renfe AVE and a trainee travelling with him had not been located. The investigation has only just begun, according to CSIF. A source at Adif and Renfe told El Confidencial that the inquiry must establish what instructions drivers received, whether safety conditions were respected, and which company bore responsibility for each step.