Tragic chapter on trains plunges rail superpower Spain into crisis

“We have never had any problems since this high-speed line was built more than 30 years ago, it works perfectly, it’s great,” said shop owner Alberto Montavez Montes, opposite Cordoba’s city hall, where Spanish and Andalusian flags have been flying.

Now, though, it feels different: “It’s not psychotic, but it does make you a little reluctant to get on the train, no doubt.”

After two high-speed trains collided in southern Spain, killing 45 people, in just a few days it felt like Spain’s much-vaunted rail system was in a sudden and serious crisis.

With a total length of 3,900 kilometers (2,400 miles), Spain’s high-speed rail (AVE) is second only to China’s and its nationwide network has so far been praised for its efficiency and safety.

In 2009, then-President Barack Obama singled out Spain for praise when outlining his vision for a high-speed rail network across the United States. He said the link between Madrid and Seville was “very successful, with more people traveling between these cities by rail than by car and plane combined”.

At the time, a Spanish-led consortium had just begun building a high-speed railway through Saudi Arabia’s deserts, confirming the country’s status as a rail superpower.

This week, that reputation has been tarnished.

On Sunday, the rear three carriages of a train operated by Italy’s private operator Iryo derailed at high speed along a straight track and struck the path of an oncoming train operated by national rail operator Renfe, which bore the brunt of the impact.

Two days later, after heavy rain, a wall collapsed on a suburban railway line near Barcelona in the northeast, derailing a train and killing a trainee driver.

On the same day, another local train hit rocks in Catalonia, but no one was injured.

Several passengers on a narrow-gauge train suffered minor injuries Thursday when a crane struck the carriages.

Train drivers in Catalonia are refusing to work, demanding safety, after an accident near Barcelona left the region without local rail services for two days.

Separately, train drivers’ union Semaf had called for a three-day nationwide strike in February, citing the “continuing deterioration of the rail network”.

In addition, speed limits on many high-speed lines have been temporarily reduced due to safety concerns.

All week, delays, outages and other incidents that have affected rail systems in recent months have been under the media’s spotlight, while the public has taken to social media to express their displeasure about uncomfortable or shocking travel experiences.

“I think trains are not as safe as they used to be,” said Olga Marquez, another Cordoba resident. Her husband, who regularly travels to Madrid for work and was on the same line as the high-speed collision, said he often mentioned vibrations and noise during his journeys, which suggested the tracks were not in optimal condition.

“I was excited to get on the train, but it all made me think twice when it came to my husband,” she said.

The long time lag between the high-speed accident and the realization that two trains, rather than one, were involved between railways and rescue services cast doubt on the emergency response to such a tragedy.

The government, the National Guard and an independent commission all continue to investigate the Andalusia crash, although sabotage and human error appear to have been ruled out.

Meanwhile, politicians, commentators and ordinary Spaniards have been debating the possible causes and highlighting the weaknesses of Spain’s overall rail system.

The amount of investment the rail network receives has come under special scrutiny. The Socialist-led government has tried to dismiss such doubts, pointing out, for example, that €700m (£605m) has been invested in recent years to update the Madrid-Andalusia line, including the section where the accident occurred.

“We’re not looking at a lack of maintenance, we’re not looking at an outdated (infrastructure), we’re not looking at a lack of investment,” Transportation Secretary Oscar Puente said.

A preliminary report by CIAF, the Railway Accident Investigation Commission, found that grooves found in the wheels of the derailed Iryo train and three earlier trains suggested the track had broken before the Iryo train passed over.

Puente urged caution, saying he suspected “this is an issue we’ve never seen on the network before.”

Figures released by the department show that maintenance spending on the rail system has increased sharply since Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez took office in 2018. However, other data tells a different story: Spain is at the bottom of the 2024 index of rail infrastructure spending per capita among 14 European countries published by German railway association Allianz pro Schiene.

Salvador García-Ayllón, head of the Department of Civil Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Cartagena, describes the high-speed network as “the crown jewel of Spanish infrastructure.”

However, the liberalization of the rail sector in 2020, allowing France’s Ouigo and Italy’s Iryo to provide high-speed services, may increase competitiveness and reduce fares, but also puts greater pressure on the system.

Currently, around 22 million passengers travel on Spain’s high-speed trains each year, which is about double the number before liberalization and 17 times the number of users in 1992, the year the Madrid-Seville line opened.

Salvador García-Aylon also noted that new lines built in recent years – including the northwestern region of Galicia and the northern city of Burgos, with a new line under construction along the Mediterranean – pose challenges in their maintenance. All of this has left Spanish railways “overwhelmed,” he said.

“The challenge is not just buying a Ferrari, you have to drive it to a garage,” he said. “You have to invest in maintaining the existing infrastructure.”

In recent years, the reliability of the high-speed rail system has declined significantly. According to data provided by Renfe, in July 2025, trains in the country were delayed by an average of 19 minutes. Incidents of delays, cancellations and technical issues have also increased on local railways, with Madrid’s local Sercañas network more than tripling since 2019.

Catalonia suffered two incidents on Tuesday over long-standing and well-documented shortcomings in its suburban Rodalies network that have fueled political tensions with Madrid over the past decade.

Perhaps inevitably, the recent tragedies have spilled over into a deeply divided political arena.

Far-right party Vox said it was “no longer safe to travel (by train) in Spain”, a statement consistent with its repeated insistence that the country resembles a failed state. Meanwhile, the main opposition People’s Party accused the government of withholding information about the highway accident.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez acknowledged that the accident in southern Spain had caused “irreparable” damage. But he also insisted the high-speed network “is the pride of the country”. Not so long ago, few Spaniards would have disputed this statement. Now, many will find it difficult to agree.