What caused the derailment?

Unlike the 2013 disaster, the derailment on Sunday happened on a straight portion of the track. An independent commission has been launched to investigate what caused it.

Óscar Puente, Spain’s transport minister, told reporters that the first train to derail was only a few years old and that the section of the track where the crash occurred had been recently renovated.

“The crash is extremely strange,” he said. “It happened on a straightaway. All the experts we have consulted are extremely baffled.”

He added: “If there had not been an oncoming train, we would not be talking about casualties of any type.”

What we know about Spain's worst rail disaster in over a decade

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At least 39 people have died and dozens more have been injured after two high-speed trains collided in southern Spain, the country's Civil Guard has said.

The incident near the city of Córdoba has been described by local officials as Spain's worst rail crash in more than a decade.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited the scene on Monday, where he announced a three-day mourning period.

Here's what we know about the incident so far.

Where did the crash happen?

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The crash occurred at around 19:45 local time (18:45 GMT) on Sunday, about an hour after one of the trains departed Málaga for Madrid. The train derailed and crossed over to the opposite track, operator Adif said.

It then collided with an oncoming train travelling from south Madrid to Huelva, which was forced into an embankment running alongside the track, Spain's Transport Minister Óscar Puente said on Sunday. The majority of those killed and injured were in the front carriages of the Huelva-bound train, he added.

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What caused the crash?

What caused the train to derail remains unclear.

Officials say an investigation has been launched but it is not expected to determine what happened for at least a month.

Puente has described the crash as "extremely strange" and said all the railway experts consulted by the government "are extremely baffled by the accident".

The president of Spain's state-owned rail operator, Renfe, said he had "discarded" the possibility that the incident occurred due to excessive speed or human error.

Álvaro Fernández Heredia told Spain's national radio RNE that even if a mistake had been made, a system within the train would have fixed it. He added that both trains were travelling under the maximum speed limit on the stretch of track where the crash happened. Fernández Heredia suggested a mechanical fault or an infrastructure issue was a more likely cause.

Meanwhile, at a news conference during his visit to Adamuz, Prime Minister Sánchez vowed to uncover the cause of the crash and thanked emergency workers for their help "in a moment of such pain and tragedy".

Are people still trapped in the trains?

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The Spanish Civil Guard arrived on scene to assess the situation and begin the evaluation process

There were around 400 passengers and staff on the two trains, operated by Iryo and Renfe, according to a statement from Renfe. It is not clear if there are people still trapped inside the carriages but rescue teams are on site.

"The problem is that the carriages are twisted, so the metal is twisted with the people inside," Francisco Carmona, head of firefighters in Córdoba, told Spanish public broadcaster RTVE. "We have even had to remove a dead person to be able to reach someone alive. It is hard, tricky work," he added.

The president of the Andalusian regional government, Juanma Moreno, told local outlet Canal Sur that they are waiting for "heavy machinery" to "practically lift" parts of the second train, which "has taken the worst part of this accident".

"Until the heavy machinery can do its job and free the wagons from the track", emergency services will not be able to start "searching and identifying" any remaining victims, he added.

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Who are the victims?

The 39 victims of the crash have not yet been identified, with Puente saying the death toll "is not yet final" as investigations into the crash commence.

As of Monday afternoon, 122 people had received medical assistance, 48 of whom remained hospitalised, local emergency services said. Among the 48 victims still in hospital, five are under the age of 18.

Moreno said teams are working to identify those who have died.

What have the survivors said?

Passengers on board the Madrid-bound train described the moment of impact feeling like an "earthquake" and said it shattered the train's windows, displaced luggage and threw people to the floor.

"I was in the first carriage. There was a moment when it felt like an earthquake and the train had indeed derailed," journalist Salvador Jimenez told Canal Sur. "There were people screaming, calling for doctors," he added.

Another passenger, Lucas Meriako, told Spanish broadcaster La Sexta Noticias he was in the fifth carriage of the same train when he started to "feel some banging" that got louder and louder. "Another train passed us and everything started vibrating. There was a jolt behind us and the feeling that the whole train was going to fall apart," he described.

Spain train crash recovery continues as investigators probe 'gap' in rail

Heavy machinery is being used to assist in the recovery following a two-train crash in southern Spain which killed at least 41 people.

Rescuers worked through a second night as more bodies are feared to be trapped in the wreckage.

More than 120 people were injured when carriages on a Madrid-bound train derailed and crossed over to the opposite tracks, hitting an oncoming train in Adamuz on Sunday evening.

A faulty or damaged weld on a rail is being investigated as a factor in the crash, Spanish media report.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has cancelled his planned trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, pledging to get to the bottom of Spain's worst train disaster in more than a decade.

Spain's King Felipe and Queen Letizia will visit the site later on Tuesday. Three days of national mourning have been announced.

Transport Minister Óscar Puente said the death toll "is not yet final". Officials are working to identify the dead.

Puente said the investigation could take at least a month, describing the incident as "extremely strange".

Spanish media report that a 30cm gap in one of the rails is the current focus of the investigation.

Technicians told the El Mundo newspaper that a "bad" or "deteriorated" weld was "more than likely" the cause for the derailment.

Ignacio Barron, head of Spain's Commission of Investigation of Rail Accidents (CIAF), said on RTVE: "What always plays a part in a derailment is the interaction between the track and the vehicle, and that is what the commission is currently [looking into]."

However, Spain's El País newspaper reports that it was not clear whether the fault was a cause or a result of the crash.

On Monday, Renfe President Álvaro Fernández Heredia apparently ruled out "human error", telling RNE TV show Las Mañanas that, if "the driver makes a mistake, the system itself corrects it".

Four hundred passengers and staff were on board the two trains, the rail authorities said. Emergency services treated 122 people, with 41, including children, still in hospital. Of those, 12 are in intensive care.

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Rescuers worked through a second night and said the death toll included three bodies still trapped in a wrecked carriage.
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Sabotage has been ruled out, the interior minister has said, and the initial focus of investigators is on a broken rail on the high-speed line.
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Spain's King Felipe and Queen Letizia visited the site on Tuesday, shaking hands and speaking to emergency service workers near the site of the crash on the first of three days of national mourning.

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The royals also visited injured passengers later at a hospital in the city of Cordoba

Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska ruled out sabotage, telling reporters that it "was never considered", and he stressed that all hypotheses remained open.

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Damaged rails have been the focus of the investigation so far

Óscar Puente warned against speculation and said a lot of cracks had been found on the track but investigators would have to determine whether they had caused the derailment or had been caused by it.

A 30cm gap in one of the rails is the current focus of the investigation, according to Spanish reports.

Driver killed and several injured after train derails near Barcelona

A train driver has been killed and at least 15 people injured after a commuter train derailed and crashed near Barcelona, local media report.

According to local officials, the Rodalies train collided with a retaining wall which fell onto the track between Gelida and Sant Sadurní on Tuesday evening.

The severity of injuries suffered by passengers is currently being assessed by emergency services.

The incident occurred as heavy storms battered north-eastern Spain.

Eleven ambulances are on the scene in Gelida, Catalonia - around 35km (21.7 miles) west of Barcelona - treating those injured, emergency services said.

The local fire service said 35 crews have been sent to the scene and have had to rescue one passenger trapped inside the train.

Many coastal areas in the east and north-west of Spain are on high alert because of the weather. There have also been snowstorms in the Spanish Pyrenees and storms along the coast of Menorca, causing waves several metres high.

The crash in Catalonia comes two days after two high-speed trains collided in Adamuz, Andalusia, in one of the worst Spanish rail accidents in over a decade.

At least 42 people are known to have died after carriages on a Madrid-bound train derailed and crossed over to the opposite tracks and then collided with an oncoming high-speed train.

The ‌crash ​in ​Cartagena in the Murcia region left several people injured, including one seriously, state broadcaster TVE reports

A third serious train crash has taken place in Spain in five days - after a commuter train hit a construction crane in the southeast of the country.

The ‌crash ​in ​Cartagena in the Murcia region left several people injured, including one seriously, state broadcaster TVE reported on Thursday.

It came after ‍Sunday's ​deadly high-speed train ‍collision in the southern Andalusia region that killed ‍at least 43 ⁠people and another train accident in northeastern Catalonia on Tuesday in which the train driver died.

Spanish rail operator Adif said on X that traffic on that line was interrupted ‌due to "the intrusion ​into the infrastructure gauge by a crane not belonging ⁠to the railway operation", without providing further ‍detail.

According to reports in Spain, officials say the train did not overturn or derail.

Photo in article link above

Perhaps it's time for the Spanish Government to suspend all rail operations until such time as they can ascertain if there is a systemic problem causing these frequent major incidents.

I've read Spain's train drivers are going on strike

Spanish train drivers call three-day strike after deadly derailments

MADRID, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Spain's biggest train drivers' union on Wednesday called a three-day nationwide strike for February 9-11 to demand measures to guarantee railway safety after three derailments in 48 hours caused crashes that left dozens dead, including two drivers.

A commuter train derailed on Tuesday after a retaining wall collapsed onto the track during heavy rains in Gelida, near Barcelona, killing the driver and seriously injuring four passengers.

It came after two trains collided on Sunday near Adamuz in the southern province of Cordoba, in one of Europe's worst train accidents. A train driver was among the 43 people who died.

A large piece of machinery found near the Adamuz crash site may be the missing chunk of undercarriage that investigators have been searching for to determine why the accident happened, a source and experts said on Wednesday.

Transport Minister Oscar Puente told reporters that investigators had analysed and taken pictures of that piece, adding that it appeared logical to believe the piece flew out into a stream after the two trains collided.

Puente said authorities are working towards resuming the Madrid-Andalucia rail link, which has been suspended since Sunday's accident, on February 2.

A third derailment of a train on Barcelona's regional network on Tuesday, which left no injuries, was caused by a rock falling on the line during the same storm, rail network operator Adif said.

"The serious accidents in Adamuz and Gelida, both with fatalities, are a turning point in demanding all necessary actions to guarantee the safety of railway operations," the train operators' union SEMAF said in a statement.

It added that it would demand criminal liability from "those responsible for ensuring safety in the railway infrastructure".

UNION HAD WARNED OF WEAR AND TEAR

SEMAF had warned Adif in a letter last August of severe wear and tear to the railway track where the two trains crashed, according to a copy of the letter seen by Reuters, saying potholes, bumps, and imbalances in overhead power lines were causing frequent breakdowns and damaging the trains on several of the network's high-speed lines.

"We do not share (the view) that a general strike is the best approach," Puente told reporters, adding that he would meet with unions.

He ruled out the Adamuz accident being triggered by a human factor but said the technical cause has not been yet determined and appeared to be very complex.

He said small marks were found on the front bogies of the derailed train and some earlier trains, but said it would be premature to link them directly to infrastructure defects.

PRISING APART THE CARRIAGE

Rescuers at the Adamuz crash site found another body, increasing the death toll to 43, as they prised apart the second carriage of the train belonging to state operator Renfe, which contained its cafeteria, the Andalusian regional government said in a statement.

Overnight they had used cranes to remove one of the final carriages of the derailed train run by private consortium Iryo from the scene.

Puente said the time between the derailment and the collision was just nine seconds, giving the trains no time to brake. Authorities had previously said the gap was 20 seconds.

Recordings of the phone calls between the driver of the Iryo train and the control centre in Madrid suggest he and passengers travelling in the front five carriages hadn't initially realised there had been a crash with another train, Puente said.

It was only after climbing down from the train to inspect it and seeing the damage to the rear carriages that he made another call to ask for ambulances to be sent.

Adif said on Wednesday it had introduced a further speed limit on the Madrid-Barcelona line after a driver had reported poor conditions on the track in a 78-kilometre stretch.

On Tuesday, it had ordered drivers to limit their speed because of concerns about the state of the track. Its maintenance team had worked overnight to inspect the line and found four points that needed to be repaired, Adif said in a statement. 

Trains travelling between Madrid and the eastern city of Valencia have also been ordered to cap their speed on a 1.8-km stretch of the line, Adif said on Wednesday.     

Regional trains across Catalonia were suspended on Wednesday to allow for track inspections after recent storms.

Renfe posted a photo of its President Alvaro Fernandez Heredia using a replacement bus service as he travelled back to Madrid from Adamuz.

The BBC article has been updated with news of the latest developments, which I am quoting selectively here:

Perhaps it's time for the Spanish Government to suspend all rail operations until such time as they can ascertain if there is a systemic problem causing these frequent major incidents.

Tragic chapter on the trains sends rail superpower Spain into crisis

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"Since the high-speed line was built, 30-something years ago, we never had any problems, it worked perfectly and was fantastic," says Alberto Montavez Montes, a shop-owner opposite Córdoba city hall, where the Spanish and Andalusian flags have been hanging at half-mast.

Now, though things feel different: "It's not that there's psychosis, but it does make you just a bit reluctant to get on a train, without a doubt."

In just a few tragic days since two high-speed trains collided in this southern region of Spain, with the loss of 45 lives, it has felt that Spain's much-vaunted rail system has been thrown into a sudden, deep crisis.

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Spaniards observed three days of mourning this week as they reflected on the Adamuz disaster

Second only to China in scale, Spain has 3,900 km (2,400 miles) of high-speed (AVE) rail and until now its national network has been admired for its efficiency and safety.

In 2009, then-US president Barack Obama singled out Spain for praise when he outlined a vision for the creation of a high-speed rail network across America. The line connecting Madrid and Seville "is so successful that more people travel between those cities by rail than by car and airplane combined", he said.

At the time a Spanish-led consortium had just begun work on a high-speed link across the Saudi Arabian desert, confirming the country's status as a rail superpower. That reputation has been humbled this week.

Last Sunday, the back three carriages of a train run by private Italian operator Iryo derailed at high speed, along a straight stretch of track, into the path of an oncoming train run by national rail operator Renfe which bore the brunt of the crash.

Two days later, a trainee driver was killed when a wall collapsed on to a suburban rail line near Barcelona in the north-east after heavy rainfall, derailing a train.

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The same day another local train in Catalonia hit a rock, although nobody was injured. And on Thursday, several passengers on a narrow-gauge train suffered minor injuries when a crane struck a carriage.

Train drivers in Catalonia refused to work in the wake of the accident near Barcelona, demanding safety guarantees and contributing to two days without local rail services in the region.

Separately, train drivers' union Semaf has called a nationwide strike for three days in February over what it has described as "the constant deterioration of the rail network".

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A trainee driver was killed when a wall crashed on to his cab in Catalonia in heavy rain

In addition, several high-speed lines have had their speed limits temporarily reduced, due to safety concerns.

Throughout the week, delays, stoppages and other incidents affecting the rail system over recent months have been pored over in the media, while members of the public have aired grievances on social media about uncomfortable or alarming travel experiences.
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A long delay between the high-speed crash and the rail and rescue services' realisation that two trains – rather than just one – had been involved has created doubts about the emergency response to such tragedies.

The government, the civil 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 cause as well as highlighting weaknesses in Spain's overall rail system.

The amount of investment the rail network receives has come under particular scrutiny. The Socialist-led government has sought to dismiss such queries, pointing out, for example, that €700m (£605m) has been invested in updating the Madrid-Andalusia line in recent years, with the stretch of track where the accident took place included in that renovation.

"We're not looking at a problem of lack of maintenance, we're not looking at a problem of obsolete [infrastructure], and we're not looking at a problem of lack of investment," said the transport minister Óscar Puente.

A preliminary report by rail accident investigation commission CIAF has found that grooves found on the wheels of the derailed Iryo train and three earlier trains suggests that a fracture in the track occurred before the Iryo train went over it. Urging caution, Puente said he suspected "a problem that we have never seen on our network before."

Figures released by his ministry show a sharp increase in maintenance spending on the rail system since Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez took office in 2018. However, other data tells a different story: Spain was bottom of an index published by German railway association Allianz pro Schiene of spending per capita on rail infrastructure by 14 European countries in 2024.

Salvador García-Ayllón, head of the civil engineering department at Cartagena's University-Polytechnic, described the high-speed network as being "the jewel in the crown of Spanish infrastructure".

However, the liberalisation of the rail sector in 2020, allowing France's Ouigo and Italy's Iryo to provide high-speed services, may have increased competitivity and reduced ticket prices, but it has also put more pressure on the system.

Around 22 million travellers currently use Spain's high-speed trains each year, around double the number prior to the liberalisation, and 17 times the number of users in 1992, the year the Madrid-Seville line was inaugurated.

Salvador García-Ayllón also points to new lines which have been built over recent years – including the north-western region of Galicia and the northern city of Burgos, with a new route along the Mediterranean under construction – whose upkeep presents a challenge. All of this, he said, has left Spanish rail "bursting at the seams".

"The challenge is not just to buy a Ferrari, you have to take the Ferrari to the garage," he said. "You have to invest in maintaining the infrastructure you have."

The high-speed rail system's reliability has dropped noticeably in recent years. In July of 2025, its trains were 19 minutes late on average, according to data provided by Renfe. Local rail has also seen a rise in incidences, such as delays, cancellations and technical problems, which have more than tripled since 2019 on the Madrid local Cercanías network.

Catalonia, which suffered the double accident on Tuesday, has had longstanding and well-documented deficiencies in its suburban Rodalies network, which have fed into its political tensions with Madrid over the last decade.

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

Far-right party Vox has said that "travelling in Spain [by train] is no longer safe", a claim that fits into its repeated insistence that the country is akin to a failed state. The main opposition People's Party (PP), meanwhile, has accused the government of hiding information about the high-speed crash.

The prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has acknowledged that the accident in southern Spain caused "irreparable" damage. Yet he also insisted that the high-speed network "is the cause of pride for the country". Not so long ago, few Spaniards would have queried that assertion. Now, many will find it hard to agree.

Sold-out buses and sky-high flight prices: Spain’s train crash leaves passengers stranded

Southern Spain's high-speed train crash on Sunday 18 January left at least 42 people dead and over 150 injured.

With rail services suspended between Madrid and Andalusia following the Adamuz accident, hundreds more passengers were left stranded.

Azucena Esteban and Carlos Hidalgo, a married couple from Madrid who had planned to travel to Seville on a Renfe night train on Sunday, have now managed to reach their destination after a 48-hour journey.

Southern Spain's high-speed train crash on Sunday 18 January left at least 42 people dead and over 150 injured.

With rail services suspended between Madrid and Andalusia following the Adamuz accident, hundreds more passengers were left stranded.

Azucena Esteban and Carlos Hidalgo, a married couple from Madrid who had planned to travel to Seville on a Renfe night train on Sunday, have now managed to reach their destination after a 48-hour journey.

Stranded train passengers faced with astronomical flight prices

"There was no option," Esteban recalls when asked about the transport options they considered at the time. They first spoke to Euronews Travel on the morning of Monday 19 January at Madrid Atocha station, where they were waiting for Renfe to provide a viable travel alternative.

When they realised that even the shuttle bus they had been promised to take them to Méndez Álvaro station would not arrive, they opted to hire a car at Barajas airport, as this service was not available at Atocha.

Flights between Madrid and Seville had climbed to €300, well above their usual price, Azucena recounted the following day by phone and from the Andalusian capital.

"I looked at all the airlines, but Malaga-Madrid was unviable, at least on Monday," explains Alberto García Chaparro, another affected resident in the capital.

"Buses were sold out and rental cars were unviable. Plane fares ranged from €180 to €500. In fact, I tried to buy an Iberia flight for €128, but when I paid [through a flight comparator], it was full and wouldn't let me buy it. When I went back in, it was already worth €300."

Car rental companies hiked prices following train crash

As García Chaparro points out, rental car companies also applied price increases after the accident that blocked all train travel between Madrid and Andalusia, Spain's first and third most populated regions, for 24 hours.

"The cars were at €80 - we looked the day before," says Azucena Esteban, who paid more than €200 to make the journey south. She adds that other users, who had approached the airport with the same intention, received quotes of €1,000 from other car companies.

Due to the system of variable prices depending on supply and demand in these companies, it is impossible to verify this fact: the current figures for a trip similar to the one they took, at the time of writing this article, range between €125 and €250.

Other affected passengers who Euronews Travel spoke with on Monday at Atocha station did manage to purchase bus tickets to Andalusia.

But testimonies gathered during the morning after the accident claimed that there was only one night bus left when consulted: "We were able to catch it at 10pm, but there were no others left." Two women interviewed also testified that air fares were "very expensive".