The Spanish government is taking a step forward to respond to both the safety of the railway network and the victims of the tragic accident in Urda, in the province of Toledo. The President of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez, had already hinted a few hours after the collision between the two trains at the intention to approve measures to reinforce high-speed safety. A service that, in the words of Sánchez himself, has been "hit" after experiencing two tragedies in less than a year; the one in Toledo and the one in Adamuz (Cordoba) last January. "The goal is to recover [the public's] confidence in the train," government sources insist.

Salvador Illa and Pedro Sánchez come to the defense of high-speed rail. The President of the Generalitat has declared himself "in favor" of keeping the high-speed line between Barcelona and Madrid in operation, which he described as "safe". These words reject, de facto, what the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, said last week after the Toledo train accident, when he proposed closing this line while maintenance work was being carried out. In parallel, the Spanish President, Pedro Sánchez, has added that his government has set as a priority that citizens "recover the broken trust in high-speed rail as soon as possible, whatever it takes". In this regard, he has announced urgent aid for the victims of the Urda accident.

Antonio Machado worked his whole life as an inspector for the low-null-know-nothing speed line between Seville and Madrid. After years sweating on the catenary, he was kicked out of the bull-skin-fraud railway company. On the platform of his exile, the poet of the track wrote that there is “a Spain that dies and another Spain that yawns”. Antonio, with the respect I have for you, and you already know that my cat and I recite your verses from memory without being drunk, there are not two Spains: there is only one.

After the new railway accident on the Madrid-Andalusia AVE line –and let's not forget Gelida– there have generally been –with regrettable exceptions– a few days of prudence out of respect for the dead and to focus energy on assisting the victims and their families. But it is very evident that the repercussions of all kinds from this tragedy will be very strong. Also in the political space and regarding the election date of November 29th. The train crash had just occurred and a government advisor already told me: "This changes everything, we must return to minute zero of the pre-election campaign, we need to rethink what should be done with more perspective, once we know the causes and effects of what has happened". Perhaps the best definition was given to me by a friend when he told me that "what has happened is very infuriating, it is very infuriating because it is unacceptable". And he added: "It cannot be that I with my mobile phone can locate anything and a railway control center cannot do the same with a train".

The unbearable frivolity of Minister Óscar Puente has lamentably marked the narrative and the debate regarding the terrible Urda train accident. His appearance on the first day as the government spokesperson—in accordance with his position—laid him bare. His entire speech revolved around one idea: attributing responsibility for the tragedy to a human error by the person in charge of the Atocha control center, who gave the order to the AVE train driver to start in normal mode. Consciously or unconsciously, the worst of politicking came from his soul: facing an extreme situation by looking for a culprit to pin the blame on. And failing to realize that with this frivolity, he was only further complicating the situation.

All the things that go through our minds and bodies after an accident we suffer without having experienced it. The empathy that puts us in others' shoes: of those who weep, of those who wait, of those who despair. The chance that manifests itself continuously: who did not get on the train despite having the ticket, who was in another carriage, who changed seats while already on the train. The heads and tails of the world. Solidarity and greed. People who give and people who take. The vultures that feed ahead of time. The system that allows that, while bodies of snatched lives are still being searched for, business begins to be made with tickets that skyrocket in price and scams that unscrupulously take advantage of pain. And those who are always campaigning and do not stop doing so because they come first and their unbearable noise does not intend to solve, only to deafen. The wheel that turns and turns and places thoughts on top of one another so that we never quite finish sifting through them.

The Minister of Transport spent two hours this noon answering technical questions about Wednesday's tragic train accident in Toledo which, for the moment, has left 69 people dead. Óscar Puente has guaranteed that he is only obsessed with resolving the crisis, that he has not thought for a moment about the general elections on November 29, and that he has no intention of resigning. "My way of being responsible is by facing the music," he stressed. Sources close to the minister explain that he has placed his position at the disposal of Pedro Sánchez and that the Spanish president has asked him to stay because it would be an "unfair" resignation. Immersed in the electoral context, Puente's figure could harm socialist options, and the same sources admit that he will hardly be a visible face in the campaign.

The tragic collision of two trains in Urda, in the province of Toledo, which has already left more than 70 people dead, has put the Spanish railway network in the spotlight and reopened the debate on infrastructure maintenance. With the data at hand, a surprising conclusion is reached: Spain is the European country that has allocated the most money to expanding the high-speed network, but investment in the conservation and improvement of existing lines has a much lower weight than that of its major railway neighbors.

When such a terrible accident occurs as the one in Los Yébenes, in Toledo, and previously the one in Adamuz, a commotion and social alarm are produced that are so high that there is a tendency to seek quick answers where there are none. Experts point out that accidents are always multi-causal, and that it is not always easy to find a concrete explanation for them. In any case, two levels must always be distinguished. First, it is necessary to identify the error or the chain of errors that led to the misfortune. And second, to analyze the underlying causes that made the error possible.

Two railway accidents in Spain in the same year that add up to more than 100 deaths are "unacceptable". The assessment was made this Wednesday by the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, after the tragedy in Toledo. Under normal circumstances, an "unacceptable" event should lead to significant decisions. And, just as it happened after the Adamuz accident, all eyes are once again focused on the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, who for the time being has no intention of resigning. "I am not thinking about myself," he explained this Wednesday to guarantee that he is fully focused on "clarifying the facts and trying to resolve the situation." How will he get out of this one?

“Uncertainty, of course, is what is hardest to bear. But I believe there is one thing that counteracts it, which is hope, which must never be lost”. This is the reflection verbalized this afternoon by Manuel, the brother of one of the missing persons in the train accident in Urda, Toledo, who continues to long for good news. “There are peaks of absolute hope and peaks where you collapse”, admits his sister, Esther. Both have spent the day at the Casa Sacerdotal in Toledo, the space that has been set up for people who have not yet located their relatives. They are looking for Pepe, who is 54 years old and was traveling to Seville for work.

The unfortunate chain of technical failures and human errors that ended in the collision of two high-speed trains in Urda, Toledo, opens up many questions about how it could have happened and what technical factors could explain a disaster of these characteristics. Transport sector expert and director of the Terminus Transport Studies Centre, Joan Carles Salmerón, clarifies technical terms and the main unknowns still surrounding the accident for the ARA. There are six questions to provide context and understand key concepts.

This Wednesday, at 8:53 a.m., two high-speed trains collided between the towns of Mora and Urda, in Toledo. For the moment, the victim toll has risen to more than sixty people, but it is feared that the figure will increase even further. We review, with images, how the events unfolded.

Renfe has already begun the tasks to dismantle the train that caught fire on Monday on the high-speed line between Barcelona and Madrid and which has kept this corridor running at half capacity since then. The work to remove this part of the train, the most complicated one, began on the night between Thursday and Friday. Once cleared of scrap metal, it will be necessary to check the condition of the track and the catenary and, if necessary, repair it. Nevertheless, the infrastructure manager, Adif, is maintaining the planned schedule and expects that the line will be able to return to normal next week. Even so, at this time neither Renfe nor Adif can specify which exact day it will be possible to return to circulating on both tracks.

Normal high-speed rail service between Barcelona and Madrid will not be restored until the beginning of next week. This was announced this Wednesday by the new spokesperson for Adif in Catalonia, Antonio Carmona, who explained that the work to remove the train affected by Monday's fire is complex and can only be carried out at night, because it is incompatible with train traffic on the adjacent track.

The National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) calculates that more than 509,000 travelers have given up using high-speed trains between Madrid and Barcelona compared to the times when they made the journey in "historical best times".

The tragedies in Adamuz and Gelida in January, which caused 47 fatalities, cast doubt on the entire Spanish railway system, not only because the accidents called into question the maintenance and safety of the network, but also because since then train travel has not been the same. In Catalonia, Rodalies still suffers from line closures, speed restrictions and service delays, and high-speed journey times have lengthened. Trips from Barcelona to Madrid now take half an hour longer due to the system, and there are unexpected delays and stops on the tracks without anyone providing any explanation to users. The reason is the speed restrictions imposed by the ministry – especially on the Zaragoza-Calatayud stretch – following incidents reported by train drivers. What complaints are we talking about? Were there more incidents than usual after Adamuz? Did the labor dispute between the Semaf union and the ministry, which ended in a strike, have anything to do with it? And more importantly, what actions has Transport taken to resolve the state of the infrastructure? ARA made a transparency request to the Spanish government to clarify these points, but the request has been rejected. In other words, the public administration has refused to release this information, and the Communications Department of the Ministry of Transport refers to the official response given through the transparency process.

The European Public Prosecutor's Office will also investigate the tragic train accident in Adamuz, Córdoba. in which 46 people died on January 18thSpecifically, the European Union Public Prosecutor's Office has opened an investigation into possible fraud involving European funds in the maintenance of the high-speed rail line connecting Madrid and Seville, the section where the accident occurred. "This exceptional confirmation comes after significant public interest. No further details will be made public at this stage," stated the European Public Prosecutor's Office in Madrid. This EU body is responsible for investigating crimes that may affect the EU's financial interests. In this case, according to EFE, the investigation seeks to determine whether there was embezzlement and misappropriation of European aid in the use of European funds. SER reports that the investigation is looking into whether there was misappropriation in the management of the more than €100 million from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) allocated to these works. The Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, has confirmed that the European Public Prosecutor's Office has been investigating the accident since it occurred. In his opinion, the agency intervenes in "all cases involving European funds." "For whatever reason, it's being presented today as a major development, but it isn't," he stated in a social media post. On January 30, European prosecutors Luis Miguel Jiménez Crespo and Juan José Navas Blánquez requested from the Ministry of Transport "all signed contracts and the corresponding file numbers related to the section of the railway network where the accident occurred." Meanwhile, the investigation into the causes of the accident is being conducted by an investigating court in Andalusia.

Problems are piling up on the high-speed rail line between Madrid and Barcelona. Adif, the infrastructure manager, which has been working for days to correct all the defects in the train network, has asked all operators serving this line to cancel the last trains of the day to allow more time for on-site work. In practical terms, this means that starting this Monday, there will be no high-speed service between Barcelona and Madrid after 8:00 p.m. This situation will only affect this corridor, and the Ministry of Transport has not yet specified how long it will last. Renfe, Iryo, and Ouigo have already canceled the last trains of the day because, with all the speed limits that had been established for safetyHigh-speed train journeys are so long that the last trains of the day occupy part of the nighttime maintenance slot. While there is no commercial service, workers thoroughly inspect and repair the infrastructure, and sources at Adif (Spain's railway infrastructure manager) indicate that there is not enough time to carry out the "adequate" checks. Renfe, which operates the AVE high-speed train service, has explained that it is canceling the journeys that departed from Madrid (Atocha station) at 8:27 p.m. and 9:07 p.m. and arrived at Sants station at midnight. Trains departing from Barcelona (Sants) at 9:05 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. and arriving at Atocha station shortly before midnight have also been canceled. "Automatic rebookings have been made for passengers affected by these cancellations," the company explained.

The Catalan phrase "to call for bad times"It refers to the doomsayer or the jinx: the one who predicts misfortunes. In Spain, and in Catalonia, it is usually the one who does the opposite who attracts misfortune. That is, "calls good weather." In other words, they see the sky as bright and clear without knowing (or knowing, even worse) that storm clouds are approaching.