Spain Train Crash Near Urda Kills at Least 68; Officials Call Signalling Decision 'Inexplicable'

At 8.53 on Wednesday morning, a Renfe high-speed train travelling from Madrid toward Seville ran into the back of a stationary Iryo train near Urda, in Toledo province, about 130 kilometres south of Madrid. Several carriages derailed and two went down an embankment. It is already one of the deadliest rail disasters in Spanish history.

At least 68 people have been confirmed dead, and authorities have warned the toll could rise as rescuers continue searching the wreckage. At least 108 people were injured, 58 of them seriously. Spanish media reported that the two trains carried 544 passengers between them. A large rescue operation is under way at the site, while hundreds of anxious relatives wait for news.

The sequence of events, as Transport Minister Óscar Puente has laid it out, began half an hour earlier. At 8.30am a computer failure stopped six trains along a 63-kilometre stretch of track, including the two that later collided. Soon afterward, a worker at a rail control centre told the drivers to start up again and carry on as normal, which on this line means high speed. The driver of the Iryo train reported that he was having trouble restarting, so his train stayed where it was. That fact was reportedly not passed on to the other drivers.

Puente called the decision to let the Renfe train proceed despite a red signal "inexplicable." He said the train drivers were not to blame. Early government statements indicate that as many as six trains on the line had been halted at some point that morning because of signalling problems.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez travelled to the scene within hours. "It's not possible for a country like Spain to suffer two high-speed train accidents in one year," he said. He declared three days of national mourning, saying all of Spain was grieving, and promised a thorough investigation and support for victims and their families. He said Wednesday's crash and a fatal one in January on the same line appeared unrelated, but that the country's rail systems needed to be investigated and improved.

The January accident happened near Adamuz, in Córdoba province, where an Iryo train derailed and collided with an oncoming Renfe service, killing 46 people. It set off a debate over how much had been invested in railway maintenance in recent years. That investigation is still open. A preliminary Civil Guard report in February named defects in the track, rail or a weld between two sections as the main hypothesis, while keeping seven other theories alive.

Spain's worst modern rail disaster remains the July 2013 derailment near Santiago de Compostela, in the north-west, where 80 people died after a train took a sharp bend at excessive speed, hit a concrete wall and caught fire. A Transport Ministry commission blamed the speed and a driver distracted by a call from a superior. A victims' association argued that the railway's security systems were also at fault, not only human error.

The broader figures add pressure. Spain's railway safety authority reports that accidents, including derailments and collisions, rose from 45 in 2016 to 57 in 2024 and 69 last year. Problems such as rail deterioration and breaks climbed from 494 to 667 over the same period. From 2018 to 2022 Spain spent an average of about €1.5 billion a year on its high-speed network, more than any other country, but only about 16 per cent went to maintenance, renewal and upgrades.

With a snap election due in November, the investigation into the Urda crash, and the unresolved Adamuz inquiry, will likely keep rail maintenance spending at the centre of the debate.