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Spanish
transport minister resigns after deadly train crash
Óscar
Puente also announces his withdrawal from upcoming election following disaster
that killed 69 people
AFP in
Madrid
Tue 3 Nov
2026 21.46 GMT
Spain’s
transport minister handed in his resignation on Tuesday after the train crash
that killed
69 people last week, one of the worst railway disasters in Europe this
century.
Óscar
Puente, who had earlier pledged to work “tirelessly” to restore confidence in
the world’s second-largest high-speed rail network, also said he was
withdrawing from the country’s upcoming general election.
Last
week’s crash, and another
disaster earlier this year, have overshadowed campaigning for the 29
November ballot, in which the Socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, is
trailing in opinion polls.
Puente
had ruled
out resigning on several occasions since the disaster.
But at
the end of a lengthy hearing before lawmakers, he said: “I wish to inform you
that I am not only stepping down from my position as minister of transport, but
that I am also withdrawing my name from the lists for the early legislative
elections on 29 November.”
Hours
earlier, at a press conference during which he presented measures to improve
safety, the minister had said the government would “work tirelessly to achieve
and regain the public’s trust in high-speed rail”.
The
rightwing opposition, which had demanded Puente’s resignation, and unions had
criticised him for appearing to pin all the blame for the disaster on one
control centre operator.
The crash
happened when a train operated by the state-owned company Renfe ploughed into
the back of a stationary train belonging to the private Spanish operator Iryo
on Wednesday outside the village of Urda, about 80 miles south of Madrid.
Work on
clearing the wreckage of the crash south of Toledo has continued this week.
Photograph: Angeles Visdomine/EPA
The
failure of an automatic safety system halted all trains on a 39-mile stretch of
track, but a control centre nonetheless authorised the Renfe service to resume
its journey.
Among the
measures announced at the earlier press conference by Puente was the creation
of software for control centres that would issue automatic alerts and make it
easier to spot anomalies in traffic.
Puente
said an AI agent would be created to oversee the system and “minimise the
possibility of human error”, describing the proposal as unprecedented.
In
scenarios where a control centre operator took a decision while the automatic
safety system was down, a second operator would have to confirm it, Puente
added.
The train
drivers’ union Semaf, which has called strikes at Renfe for 10 and 12 November,
has denounced a worsening of working conditions and the use of “degraded
systems”.
Critics
say investment in maintenance has not kept up with the increase in passenger
numbers since the 2021 liberalisation of Spain’s rail network, which allowed
private companies to break Renfe’s decades-long monopoly.
In an
apparent recognition of the unions’ demands, Puente said the working conditions
of control centre operators would be reformed, including their breaks and by
monitoring their fatigue levels.
Puente
also announced an aid package of €30m (£25m) for the families of the dead and
the scores of people who were injured in the crash.
Another
collision in the southern region of Andalusia in January killed 46 people on
the same key line connecting Madrid with the city of Seville, Spain’s first
high-speed route when it opened in 1992.
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