Felipe VI and Letizia to attend Toledo funeral for 69 Urda train crash victims

Guests and government representatives

The funeral mass for the 69 people killed in the two-train accident at Urda, in Toledo province, on 28 October will be held in Toledo Cathedral on Tuesday, 10 November, at 19:00. King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia will attend, together with the president of Castilla-La Mancha, Emiliano García-Page. The mass will be led by the archbishop of Toledo, Francisco Cerro Chaves, with the auxiliary bishop, Francisco César García Magán, and the president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, Luis Javier Argüello, among the bishops taking part, alongside the bishops of Cuenca, Guadalajara, Ciudad Real and Albacete. The central government will be represented by Carlos Cuerpo, first vice president and Economy minister, who has also taken over the Transport portfolio after Óscar Puente resigned, a resignation the reports tie to this accident. Education and Sport minister Milagros Tolón and the government delegate in the region, José Pablo Sabrido, will also attend. Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the national president of the Partido Popular, will attend with the regional presidents Juanfran Pérez Llorca (Generalitat Valenciana), Juanma Moreno (Andalusia), Marga Prohens (Balearic Islands), María José Sáenz de Buruaga (Cantabria), Jorge Azcón (Aragón), Isabel Díaz Ayuso (Madrid) and Fernando López Miras (Murcia). Vox will send David Moreno, president of its parliamentary group, in a personal capacity, along with its Toledo Congress candidates Manuel Mariscal and Atilana Guerrero. Toledo mayor Carlos Velázquez, Madrid mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida and Cortes president Pablo Bellido are also expected. Prohens will attend despite a plenary session of the Balearic Parliament that morning at 09:00 and an 11:00 audience with the United Kingdom's ambassador to Spain, Alex Ellis.

A second funeral, with the Cristo de Urda present

The Toledo mass is the second funeral held in Castilla-La Mancha for the victims. The first took place on 31 October in the packed parish church of Urda and was also officiated by Cerro Chaves and García Magán. For Tuesday's service, the image of the Santísimo Cristo de la Vera-Cruz of Urda will leave the village for the first time in its more than 400 years of history. Professionals and volunteers who helped after the accident will also attend.

Live television coverage

RTVE will broadcast the ceremony live from 18:45 on La 1, Canal 24 horas, Radio Nacional, Radio 5, Radio Exterior, RTVE Noticias and RTVE Play. Pepa Bueno and Marc Sala will present from outside the cathedral, with several live points planned around the ceremony. Radio Nacional's special starts at 18:50, hosted by Lara Hermoso and Lucía Yeste. Once the funeral ends, part of the second edition of Telediario will be broadcast from Toledo. Because of the live special, La Promesa will not air on Tuesday, and its episode 944 moves to Wednesday, 11 November. Valle Salvaje will start at 17:50, slightly later than usual, and Malas lenguas will begin at 20:15 with Gonzalo Miró.

Why the date changed

The funeral was originally planned for Thursday, 12 November, and was brought forward to Tuesday, 10 November, for agenda reasons cited by the institutions involved. Schedules are expected to return to normal on Thursday, when the UEFA Nations League match between Czechia and Spain is set for 20:45.