Brussels – A serious rail accident occurred this morning on the Madrid–Seville high-speed line, in the province of Toledo, in Castile-La Mancha. The collision took place at around 9 am, near Urda station. According to the Spanish Civil Protection Agency, the provisional death toll stands at at least 64, with over 179 injured.
The collision involved an AVE train operated by the state-owned company RENFE, carrying 397 passengers, and a train operated by the private operator Iryo – in which Trenitalia holds a stake – carrying around 146 passengers. Both were bound for Seville. The RENFE train rear-ended the Iryo train while it was stationary: the last two carriages of the Iryo train derailed and ended up on an embankment, and one of the AVE’s carriages also came off the tracks.
Investigations into the causes are still ongoing. The Spanish government believes human error is a possibility, and the newspaper El País has published a reconstruction of events, which has not been officially confirmed: a fault in the safety system is said to have forced around ten trains to stop and, when services resumed, a control centre operator is said to have mistakenly authorised the RENFE train to continue.
ADIF, the infrastructure manager, has suspended high-speed train services between Madrid and Andalusia in both directions, affecting over a hundred trains. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez described the incident as “serious” and said he was “deeply shocked.”
Messages of condolence have been received from the European institutions. The President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, wrote on X: “I have just received the devastating news from Toledo of the collision between two high-speed trains. My thoughts are with the families and loved ones of the victims. Today, Europe mourns with you.” The President of the European Council, António Costa, stated: “It is with deep dismay that I have received news of the tragic train accident in Toledo. My deepest condolences go to the families and loved ones of the victims,” adding “my full solidarity with the injured, to whom I wish a speedy recovery” and thanking the emergency services at the scene. The President of the Italian Council, Giorgia Meloni, expressed her sympathy “to Spain and the Spanish people following the tragic train accident.” At 8 pm, the Spanish Federation of Municipalities called for a minute’s silence in front of all town halls.
The tragedy brings attention back to the same route as the Adamuz disaster, in the province of Córdoba, where more than forty people died on 18 January.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
