Comment by locknitpicker
21 days ago
> So I would standby for this tragedy to be used for political purposes
This is an ignorant opinion. For multiple reasons.
Derailing under these circumstances is a track issue, which means ADIF, the state's infrastructure maintainer, is under suspicion. Not operators, the state's infrastructure maintainer.
Liberalization of the railway sector is an EU-wide mandate. It's not some whimsical slip of a single country's leadership.
Years ago there was an AVE derailment in Santiago de Compostela. No one banned RENFE from the lines.
>Derailing under these circumstances is a track issue, which means ADIF, the state's infrastructure maintainer, is under suspicion.
This is the most likely outcome, but it is not as cut-and-dried as you are presenting it.
It could be a broken rail weld, it could be track sabotage, it could be a broken wheel or bogie... we don't know yet.
> It could be a broken rail weld, it could be track sabotage, it could be a broken wheel or bogie... we don't know yet.
Yes, the root cause is still unknown, and an investigation needs to happen to determine the root cause.
Sabotage or not, the infrastructure is by far the most likely suspect.
Even in the Santiago de Compostela accident, the root cause was the way the Spanish high speed railway infrastructure was mismanaged. Originally they tried to throw the train conductor under the proverbial bus with accusations of speeding to impress a girl, but later the investigation determined the track section failed to support basic speed limiters.
Jumping to conclusions about evil private railway operators is just ignorant and dumb.
>later the investigation determined the track section failed to support basic speed limiters.
ASFA has no notion of a speed limit. Spanish HSLs have subsequently been resignalled to ETCS, which adds speed control.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anuncio_de_Se%C3%B1ales_y_Fren...
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> The government during that time (of the same party than this one) did nothing.
It looks like you're quite interested in pointing out that the culprit of this 2013 accident was the same party which is now in office, but even if we take a look at your sources, it says something different:
"Las víctimas creen que hubo cuatro decisiones críticas. Primero, el cambio de proyecto original realizado por Blanco, que suprimió el sistema de seguridad ERTMS en la vía justo antes de Angrois. Segundo, la decisión del ministerio de Ana Pastor de desconectar el sistema embarcado en el Alvia, desactivando una medida técnica que habría ayudado a mitigar el riesgo de un error humano como el que tuvo el maquinista. La tercera decisión fue ignorar un aviso por escrito de un jefe de maquinistas advirtiendo del riesgo en la curva de Angrois. La cuarta, que Adif y Renfe permitieron poner en servicio la línea sin haber realizado el análisis y evaluación de riesgos que exigía la normativa."
There we can read that not only the former minister Blanco (socialist) was to blame according to the demonstrators, but also Ana Pastor (conservative) whose party was in charge when the accident happened.