The until now president of Adif, Luis Pedro Marco de la Peña, presented his resignation this Wednesday to the Spanish government's vice president, Carlos Cuerpo, who was also debuting today as Minister of Transport. This is confirmed by sources from the Spanish government. Marco de la Peña has resigned from his position at the railway operator the day after the now former Minister of Transport Óscar Puente also resigned, and one week after the tragic train accident in Urda (Toledo), which has left 69 fatalities.

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.

That the search tasks be accelerated, that the necessary operators be assigned to do so, and that work be carried out uninterruptedly, including at night. These are the three requests made by the judge investigating the Urda railway tragedy to the crane company contracted by Adif-Renfe, given the "urgent need" to locate all possible remains that might still be found at the site where the wrecked trains are located. The area of the accident, where at least 69 people have died, continues to be inspected with the goal of being able to hand them over to the victims' families as soon as possible.

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.

In recent days, the residents of Urda have become the involuntary protagonists of an accident that will leave indelible marks on this small town seventy kilometers from Toledo. They are a multitude of anonymous people who did not hesitate to approach the scene, who were on the front line from the very first moment to help the victims. Now, still in shock, they remember a few hours that have changed their lives. Nor will the passenger of another AVE train that was covering the route from Seville to Madrid, and which stopped 500 meters from the accident, ever forget it.

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.

The tragic railway accident in Urda, in the province of Toledo, which has already left about seventy fatalities, has sparked unrest among railway workers, controllers, and train drivers, especially after this Wednesday the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, pointed directly to the "human error" of an operator in the Adif control center room.

"We need to broaden the focus. How many parts have failed?". This is asked by a union voice in the railway sector who, like many other workers, has not yet recovered from the tragic train accident in Urda, Toledo, which has caused at least 69 fatalities. They have lost a colleague – the driver of the Renfe train –; the trainee who was accompanying him remains missing, and they have expressed their unease over what they consider a direct finger-pointing by the Ministry of Transport at the operator of the Adif regulation and control center (CRC) in Atocha, who has been placed in the spotlight regarding the cause of the accident.

The Data Integration Center (CID) created due to the train accident in Urda, Toledo, has warned that some relatives of potential fatalities are receiving fake SMS messages and urges those who receive them to disregard them.

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.

The morning has begun with a serious train accident in Spain. Two high-speed trains have collided in the province of Toledo, south of Madrid. An Iryo and an AVE. They did not collide head-on but from the rear, one that was moving against one that was stationary. It seems the train driver had not received the message that there was a stationary train ahead because the electronic system that was supposed to inform them was not working and the control center did not warn them. As a result of the impact, two carriages have fallen down an embankment and, as I speak to you, Civil Protection has reported 46 deaths, but the death toll may worsen. We still do not know why it happened, but it is impossible not to think about the accident in Andalusia, in Adamuz, in the month of January, where 46 people also died.

Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya (FGC) has been forced to limit service again on the Llobregat-Anoia line due to a new incident involving Adif at the Gornal tunnel in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, very similar to the one from last week. All of this occurred 24 hours after service had been normalized following the previous breakdown at the same point. This was confirmed to ARA by sources from the public company.

"High-level" meeting at the Palau de la Generalitat to address the eternal crisis in Rodalies. President Salvador Illa and Minister Sílvia Paneque received Minister of Transport Óscar Puente, the Secretary of State for the sector, José Antonio Santano, and the presidents of Renfe, Adif, and Rodalies de Catalunya this Thursday morning in a meeting that Puente described as "monographic". The topic? The problems of Rodalies. Upon leaving, the minister admitted that he understands the users' frustration and promised them that everything "will improve".

The chaos of Rodalies is an entrenched disaster. Promises of improvement drag on forever. The reality of delays, accidents, and breakdowns persists. Incidents are daily, a living hell for users. The latest rain episodes have once again highlighted the precariousness of a service that has its credibility in the dirt. And the covert strike by train drivers has only further aggravated the situation. Thousands of citizens have been living for a long time, a very long time, a daily disaster.

The high-speed rail between Barcelona and Madrid continues to experience widespread delays caused by the fire of an AVE train near Ricla, in Aragon, and, for the moment, there is no set schedule as to how many days this incident might affect the network's operation. The Minister of Territory, Sílvia Paneque, explained that the disruptions will depend on the days it takes to remove the affected train and that the network will likely continue to suffer delays of about 15 minutes on average over the coming days. "At this moment, they are analyzing how to remove the train with maximum safety; this is what Renfe has conveyed to us. For now, therefore, trains are circulating on a single track, which is what is causing the delays," stated Paneque, who prioritized the need to ensure safety over the full resumption of service.

On Saturday, the trains stopped working as a precaution, between seven in the evening and two in the afternoon the next day. Since the trains run like clockwork and on the day they have to do construction work or there is an incident they treat you like a subject, they ask for your forgiveness, they provide coaches and smile at you, we didn't argue about it. Someone might say it was overzealous, but we are coming from a weekend in which lives have been lost. On Monday, the trains were already running normally, but the alert sounded mid-morning, when we had all dropped off our children and were at our various jobs.

First they said they would be ready in 2025. Then, in the summer of 2026 and later, at the beginning of 2027. Now, however, the schedule is delayed until the spring. The new trains that Alstom is manufacturing for Rodalies are taking a while to arrive. This was admitted this Thursday by the Secretary of State for Transport and Mobility, José Antonio Santano, in a talk at the Cercle d'Economia in Barcelona.