Spain has the most extensive high-speed rail network in Europe and the second-largest in the world after China. A source of immense national pride, the train system has grown and become more affordable thanks to a boom in rail passengers and competition among train companies. Every few minutes, a train departs from Madrid for Barcelona and vice versa, linking the country’s two most populous cities. This 600km journey takes less than three hours for an average fare of €65.
Thirty-four years after the first high-speed train between Madrid and Seville, the network now connects more than 50 cities in Spain. Along with being a badge of pride for the country, it even commands a rare political consensus. At least that was the case until this month’s calamities. In the first accident, one train derailed and collided with another near the town of Adamuz in Andalucía, killing 45 people and leaving dozens more injured. A second accident in Catalonia, caused by the collapse of a wall in bad weather, killed the driver of a commuter train in Barcelona. The local network, which has suffered delays and malfunctions for years, was completely halted for days as a result.
The network’s safety record remains strong, but these shocks have sparked debate on underinvestment in infrastructure maintenance and become yet another issue for angry, partisan conflict.
Spaniards love trains. Travel by train now accounts for more than 56% of all transport, surpassing road and air transport combined. In 2024, long-distance trains carried 85 million passengers a 15% increase on the previous year. The shock of what happened hits closer to home since trains are such an integral part of daily life and continue to provide a reliable service for many across the country (even if local networks remain a source of frustration and the most depopulated areas have gradually lost their services over the years).
The investigation into the Andalucía derailment is ongoing but the focus of inquiries is on the point where the accident happened, specifically on a broken weld connecting two rails, one from 1989 and one from 2023. There is now political disagreement over the extent to which the infrastructure on the Madrid-Seville line, among the oldest in the high-speed network, had been overhauled.
The minister for transport, Óscar Puente, a divisive figure who often takes to social media to criticise journalists and political rivals, acknowledged that he was mistaken on some of the details in his first statements on the crash.
The centre-right People’s party (PP) is using the dispute to mount a broader attack on the government. Party leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo even made a pun comparing the state of the railway with the state of the nation.
The PP-led regional government in Valencia was widely criticised for mismanaging the floods in the area in 2024, and its president was forced to resign a year later. Now many in the PP are pushing to blame the Socialist-led national government for the train disaster. Only a few conservative officials, such as the president of Andalucía, have refrained from exploiting the tragedy for political point scoring.
Despite the blame game, the truth is that the high-speed network has been the result of a long-term commitment by politicians across the political spectrum. But prioritising investment in new lines over the maintenance of existing infrastructure has been a persistent pattern too. Regardless of party affiliation, politicians tend to like inaugurating a new line or a renovated train station. There are few photo opportunities to be had and little kudos attached to the boring but vital task of upgrading tracks in the middle of the countryside.
The centre-left government has invested more in rails and maintenance than the previous conservative administration, which ran the country in the aftermath of the financial crisis. Still, with growing traffic, new lines and more passengers, Spain spends less on maintenance per kilometre than Germany or Switzerland, even if such comparisons are imperfect given differences in network age and the cost of public works and materials.
Moving forward requires a serious, careful approach for both the government and the opposition, not another partisan, unscrupulous race to the bottom for political gain.
And yes, there is still a lot to love about trains in Spain. They are cheaper, faster and more comfortable than most in Europe.
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