Comment by david-gpu
16 hours ago
From the article in El País:
> “A human error by an [state-owned railway infrastructure company] Adif operator in response to a malfunction in the main signaling system is the likely cause of the accident,” government sources said. This safety system is automated, but when it fails, it switches to manual mode. That is why the trains came to a stop when the automatic safety system failed, and service resumed under human control — and that is where the error occurred, according to initial analyses.
This is not the first time something broadly like that happens. In 2013 another train crashed because there was a section of the track where the operator had to manually adjust the speed, and he didn't.
One would think that the operation of these trains would be fully automated at all times, and with sufficient allowances to handle emergencies safely.
Point in case: Japan has not had a single death due to a crash of a high speed train, even though they have been operating an extensive network for decades.
The operation is fully automated until the point when the system breaks and the human controller orders manual overrides.
They could have waited for recovery etc. The issue is they switched to manual and then botched it. We don't know root cause yet (bad management, timetable pressure, lax work culture...?).
According to the available information, the failure of the automated system caused six trains to stop. They were then given manually the go-ahead to proceed at full speed (!!!). Six does not sound like a huge number of them to ensure that the train ahead is moving normally before the train behind is told to continue. This sounds like a massive failure in either the protocol or the operator's ability to follow the protocol. Mind boggling stuff, really.
As a Spaniard I am profoundly ashamed that these crashes are happening, when other countries like China, France and Japan seem to manage just fine with their extensive high-speed rail networks.