Spain’s rail network is under scrutiny after a commuter train crashed near Barcelona, killing a trainee driver and injuring 41 people, just days after a high-speed collision left at least 43 dead and 152 injured. The second crash occurred at approximately 9pm on Tuesday when a retaining wall collapsed onto the track near Gelida in Catalonia, derailing a local train. The deceased was identified as 27-year-old Fernando Huerta from Seville.
The collapse is believed to have been caused by unusually heavy rainfall in the region. As a precaution, Catalonia’s rail network was shut down pending inspections, stranding hundreds of thousands of passengers and causing road chaos. Earlier on Tuesday, a train on the Maresme coast struck a rock on the track, injuring several people, though none seriously.
Spain’s largest train drivers’ union, Semaf, has called for an indefinite strike, demanding assurances for safety. In a statement, the union said it would seek “criminal liability from those responsible for ensuring safety in the railway infrastructure” and could not accept “the constant deterioration of the rail network”.
Meanwhile, the cause of Sunday’s high-speed crash near Córdoba remains unclear. The train’s black box recorder revealed that the driver of the Iryo train from Málaga to Madrid was unaware another train had collided with his. Transcripts published by El País show the driver called the control centre at Atocha in Madrid a minute after the crash, reporting a “snag”. Three minutes later, the control centre saw the Alvia train had stopped and tried to contact its driver, who did not respond.
Transport Minister Óscar Puente stressed that the two accidents were “completely unrelated”, but opposition parties have criticised the government. Popular party leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo demanded “immediate clarification” of the state of the railways, while Vox spokesperson Pepa Millán claimed Spaniards were “afraid to get on a train”. Despite these incidents, EU statistics show Spain’s rail network is one of Europe’s safest, with one passenger death in 2024 compared to 20,000 road deaths.
