Comment by rr2841
5 hours ago
What we know so far:
1. The last 3 cars from the Iryo train (Frecciarossa 1000) derailed for unknown reasons. It's a straight line, so this is extremely rare.
2. The Renfe train (Alvia) didn't have time to break and hit the derailed trains from Iryo, the two first cars derail as a consequence of the impact.
3. The Iryo train(Frecciarossa 1000), that caused the accident, was manufactured in 2022 and it passed a technical inspection just 4 days ago.
4. The renovation of this specific part of the infrastructure finished on May 2025, so it's practically new.
Spanish high speed trains are one of the best in the world and it had plenty investment from governments of different sign over the years. This has nothing to do with the regional network (Cercanias) and the local struggles in certain regions.
IMHO, this is a horribly timed accidental technical issue.
https://english.elpais.com/spain/2026-01-19/at-least-39-dead...
> 3. The Iryo train(Frecciarossa 1000), that caused the accident, was manufactured in 2022 and it passed a technical inspection just 4 days ago.
The inspection is a risk factor. There is data from the aviation industry for example that engine incidents on an engine that is certified for some thousands of hours of operation between inspection happen disproportionally in the first 100 hours (and then again at the end of the inspection interval). The inspection itself is an intervention that causes incidents.
You left out that the machinists warned about the bad state of the railway tracks and asked for reducing the train speed[1].
There is underfunding in all the railway network.
[1]: https://www.eldebate.com/economia/20250809/maquinistas-piden...
The machinist union requested the maximum speed to be lowered from 300 km/h to 250 km/h on multiple areas, the one where the accident happened being one of them. Both trains were driving under 210 km/h when the accident happened, so I don't think the "rattling" they reported was the issue.
As I mentioned before, this area was renovated last year, so attributing the accident to under-funding is highly unlikely. If the infrastructure happened to be the issue at the end, it might be because of different causes: eg. Planning the wrong materials for the amount of traffic / weather conditions / etc.
In general, when you talk about under-funding in the rail network it's often regional or small areas within the inter-city (larga distancia) and transport networks. High speed infrastructure is very well financed, it's not cheap to move trains close to 300 km/h.
Doesn't need to be underfunding, may 2025 was last summer and this was the first winter, defects in laying the tracks didn't have a chance to show up until now.
The biggest part then might be that they should have listened to the operators warnings and scheduled a proper re-inspection of the route once they started warning of issues.
> defects in laying the tracks didn't have a chance to show up until now.
Defects in laying the tracks have a chance to show up on an inspection, either the final one when building or one done at the regular intervals. If it doesn't shows up, your inspection is bad. If you can't inspect what you build, you can't build it.
>You left out that the machinists warned about the bad state of the railway tracks and asked for reducing the train speed
Since two trains collided, wouldn't that have happened regardless of the state of the railway tracks?
The collision was due to one train derailing first, if that was due to the track (as mentioned in andy12_'s toplevel comment) then listening to warnings could perhaps have avoided the accident.
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One possible scenario is that the tracks fail in a way that causes one of the trains to derail and hit the other one.
There are reports from passengers that the train rattled before the accident. So my guess is a broken wheel rim and subsequently the train derailed at the track switch then also damaging the opposite track. Accident location: https://maps.app.goo.gl/Cek9DgChguXJxVpd6 The italian is about 400m north at the technical building with the two antennas.
In point number 3, you state that one of the trains caused the accident, whereas the cause of the accident is not yet known and could be for example an issue in the rails themselves.
Yes, that was not accurate and you're correct, it's still not clear what caused the first train to derail to begin with.
The way I looked at it is that the first train derailing wasn't a big issue, I don't think it caused any injuries. What was really catastrophic was the impact with the second train.
also the derailed carriages crashed rolled down a hill which complicated things further
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I don't think Russians are directly behind this. They targeted trains in Poland twice, but I suspect the next targets would be in Germany, France and the UK, and not Spain which is relatively conservative in supporting Ukraine.
The are actively sabotaging supply chains within Europe since at least two years. They did the drone overflights for propaganda purposes. They burnt down warehouses and tried to kill CEOs. Many Ukrainian refugees in Germany have been killed in "random" attacks.
In 2025, sabotage attacks on German railroad system happened nearly once per week. The recent power outage in Berlin was clearly attributed to russian origin.
In Spain there have been assassinations related to the russian invasion, for example https://apnews.com/article/ukraine-spain-shooting-madrid-d25...
It's about spreading terror and showing that the government cannot protect the citizens.
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