Spain’s biggest train drivers’ union called a three-day nationwide strike for Feb. 9-11 after the Spain train crash in Adamuz and a derailment outside Barcelona killed two drivers and at least 44 other people. The union said the back-to-back incidents were a “turning point” for safety demands, as Reuters reported, Jan. 25, 2026.
The deadliest disaster unfolded Sunday night, Jan. 18, when two high-speed trains collided near Adamuz in Córdoba province, leaving 45 people dead, according to a preliminary account from investigators. Rail infrastructure operator Adif said a Málaga-to-Madrid train derailed first and invaded the adjacent track before a Madrid-to-Huelva service also derailed, details it shared in a press release about the Adamuz accident.
Two days later, a commuter train derailed in Gelida, near Barcelona, after a containment wall fell onto the track during heavy rains, killing the driver and injuring 37 passengers, four of them seriously, Reuters reported in a separate dispatch from the scene. The accidents piled fresh pressure on Spain’s rail managers and the government as services were disrupted and inspections widened across parts of the network.
Spain train crash puts rail maintenance spending under a harsh spotlight
The Spain train crash has intensified a long-running debate over whether Spain’s rail investment has leaned too heavily toward expansion while maintenance lags behind. European Commission data cited by Reuters shows Spain spent about 1.5 billion euros a year on its roughly 4,000-kilometer high-speed network from 2018 to 2022, but only about 16% went to maintenance, renewal and upgrades — well below the shares reported for France, Germany and Italy, according to Reuters’ maintenance investment review.
Industry figures quoted in that same report said maintenance needs are rising with the system’s scale. José Trigueros, president of the Association of Roads and Civil Engineers, estimated maintenance spending for the high-speed network should increase to about 150,000 euros per kilometer from roughly 110,000 euros, and argued conventional lines also need more funding. The drivers’ union, known by its Spanish acronym SEMAF, has pointed to what it calls “the constant deterioration of the railway system,” and Reuters reported it warned Adif in an August letter about severe wear on several lines, including the stretch where Sunday’s collision occurred.
Investigation focus sharpens after the Spain train crash
Investigators have cautioned that determining the cause will take time, but early findings have put track condition under close scrutiny. Spain’s rail accident investigating body, CIAF, said a fracture in the rail appeared to have occurred before the Iryo train derailed near Adamuz — a hypothesis that has not been confirmed and does not rule out other factors, Reuters reported, citing the CIAF preliminary report. CIAF said it found wheel damage consistent with contact against the top of a rail and noted similar marks on other trains that passed through the area before the crash.
Transport Minister Óscar Puente has said investigators have not attributed the Adamuz collision to human error and has urged separating the broader political debate from the technical probe, while acknowledging public anger over repeated incidents and delays.
Continuity over time: older crashes that shaped Spain’s safety debate
The current Spain train crash crisis is unfolding against a backdrop of past tragedies and long investigations. A 2013 derailment near Santiago de Compostela became one of the country’s worst rail disasters, as described in Reuters’ initial coverage. Eleven years later, a Spanish judge sentenced the driver and a former Adif safety chief to prison over that crash, which killed 79 people and injured 143, Reuters reported in 2024.
Spain has also seen deadly accidents outside the high-speed network. In 2016, a passenger train derailed in Galicia, killing at least four people and injuring 48, the Associated Press reported at the time — a reminder that safety concerns span both long-distance corridors and regional lines.
The strike call means the Spain train crash aftermath may soon extend beyond investigations and repairs to a nationwide labor confrontation, with commuters and long-distance travelers bracing for further disruption if negotiations fail before Feb. 9.
