These published recordings don't tell us whether the AVE was warned.

Transcript

1. The train that was hit had told the control room in Madrid,
2. twice, that it was standing still.
3. Near Urda, in central Spain, on the high-speed line from Madrid to Seville,
4. an Iryo train is standing at the station's entry signal.
5. A Renfe AVE high-speed train runs into it from behind.
6. Investigators estimate it was doing 160 to 200 km/h,
7. and put the time at 08:53 on Wednesday morning.
8. 69 people are known to have died.
9. The count is not final.
10. On this line, a system called LZB
11. sends speed limits to every train through a cable in the track,
12. and brakes any train that goes too fast.
13. Investigators date its failure to 08:31.
14. The trains on that stretch stopped automatically.
15. From then on, trains followed the signal lights beside the track,
16. and controllers at Madrid's Atocha station gave instructions by phone.
17. At 08:36, the control room gives the AVE its order.
18. Spanish media have published the call.
19. After minutes of discussion, the instruction: switch the system off and on,
20. then resume under the trackside signals, with normal running.
21. The rulebook also has line-of-sight running:
22. slow enough to stop before anything the driver can see ahead.
23. The transport minister says the AVE should have been told to run that way.
24. The published order says normal running.
25. After the AVE's order, the Iryo's driver calls in.
26. She is stopped at the entry signal, and told not to pass it.
27. In the same call, she gets the AVE's order too:
28. restart the system, and resume with normal running.
29. In a second call, she says the train won't restart.
30. She is still standing there.
31. "Understood.
32. Whenever you can," she is told.
33. "If you have problems, call us."
34. These published recordings don't tell us whether the AVE was warned.
35. The minister says that after its order, the AVE travelled about 25 km.
36. Anonymous staff at Adif, which manages the tracks and signals,
37. say the recordings may be incomplete and lack context.
38. In their first note, the investigators say a chain of faults,
39. instructions and actions may have led to the collision,
40. without the necessary safeguards stepping in.
41. That note does not say which safeguards, or why.
42. On Friday, the minister went further.
43. Once the Iryo was cleared to go, he said, the signal in front of it turned green,
44. though the train couldn't move,
45. so the backup system that brakes trains at signals could not warn the AVE.
46. The investigators have not confirmed this.
47. The trains' data recorders are in police custody,
48. and the normal deadline for the final report is one year.