Renfe works to limit the resumption of a train to 40 km/h when the safety system fails

BarcelonaThat whenever the LZB safety system fails, trains should resume circulation at 40 km/h without exception. This is the proposal Renfe is already working on and which the company Iryo and the train drivers' union are also requesting following the tragic collision between an Iryo and an AVE last week, which has left at least 69 fatalities. The possible measure appears in a Renfe document in which it is being considered to give train drivers the instruction not to travel at "normal speed" when the safety system fails.

However, sources from the Spanish company point out that it is not yet a definitive decision nor an approved instruction. In fact, they also recall that Renfe is not the regulator or the traffic manager. In this regard, the proposal—which also includes measures such as the driver always confirming with the control center that there is no other train within their block—is being worked on jointly with Adif and the ERTMS, the European Rail Traffic Management System.

Before this working document came to light, on Saturday, the train drivers' union Semaf sent a letter to the State Railway Safety Agency (AESF) —which is under the Ministry of Transport— requesting to modify the protocols "urgently". In the text, the union insisted that it was necessary to revise the regulations in the event of a disconnection of the LZB —the system that guided the trains on the stretch where last week's tragedy occurred— as well as in the event of a failure of the ERTMS, which is the non-standardized model in Europe used in railway circulation.

This Monday, the union again insisted to the railway safety agency so that it "does not delay in accepting the proposal". Meanwhile, Semaf asks all train drivers to "exercise extreme caution in their daily operations to be 100% sure that everything strictly complies with current regulations".

Iryo also made a move this Monday in the same direction: it has demanded that the AESF revise the circulation protocols when safety systems stop working and, among other things, it has also requested to limit the speed of trains to 40 km/h when there is a failure of the LZB safety system. As reported by El Economista, the Italian railway company also proposes to limit and automatically supervise the speed of a train when the connection to the safety system is lost and to analyze the current capacity of the Automatic Signal Announcement and Braking (ASFA), one of the signaling systems on the tracks that also has the option of stopping a train if it is about to pass a red light.