Spain's rail network is facing renewed scrutiny after a commuter train crashed near Barcelona on Tuesday evening, just days after a high-speed collision in southern Spain killed at least 43 people. The latest accident occurred at approximately 9pm when a retaining wall collapsed onto the track near Gelida in Catalonia, derailing a local train. A trainee driver, 27-year-old Fernando Huerta from Seville, was killed, and 41 people were injured, five critically.
The collapse is believed to have been caused by unusually heavy rainfall in the region. As a precaution, the Catalan rail network was shut down pending inspections, stranding hundreds of thousands of passengers and causing road chaos. Earlier on Tuesday, a separate incident on the Maresme coast north of Barcelona saw a train strike a rock on the track, though no serious injuries were reported.
The incidents have prompted Spain's largest train drivers' union, Semaf, to call for an indefinite strike, demanding assurances for safety. In a statement on Wednesday, the union said it would seek criminal liability from those responsible for railway infrastructure safety, citing an unacceptable 'constant deterioration of the rail network' and calling for urgent new measures.
Meanwhile, the cause of Sunday night's collision at Adamuz, near Córdoba, remains unclear. The train's black box recorder revealed that the driver of the high-speed Iryo train from Málaga to Madrid was unaware another train had collided with his. According to transcripts published by El País, the driver called the control centre at Atocha in Madrid a minute after the crash at 7.43pm, reporting a 'snag' involving a disconnection between the operating system and the overhead power source. Three minutes later, the control centre noticed the Alvia train had stopped and tried to contact its driver, who did not respond.
Transport Minister Óscar Puente stressed that the two accidents were 'completely unrelated', but opposition parties have seized the opportunity to pressure the government. Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the right-wing Popular Party, wrote on X that 'this is too much' and demanded an immediate clarification of the state of the nation's railways. Pepa Millán, spokesperson for the far-right Vox party, claimed Spaniards were now 'afraid to get on a train'. However, according to EU statistics, Spain's rail network remains one of Europe's safest, with only one passenger death in 2024 compared to 20,000 road deaths.
