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Spanish rail operator ADIF received warnings last year about “severe wear and tear” on high-speed rail tracks, followed by Horrible collision on Sunday kills at least 39 people.
The SEMAF train drivers union wrote to the state-owned infrastructure management company in August, warning operators to be aware of potholes, bumps and imbalances in overhead power lines, saying the problems could lead to frequent breakdowns and damage to trains.
The letter warns of damage to one of the tracks Two trains collided near Córdoba last night. It added that drivers have expressed their concerns to the operator “on a daily basis” but no action has been taken.
Drivers are urging operators to implement a 250km/h (155mph) top speed on damaged lines until conditions on Network Rail improve.
A source with knowledge of the initial investigation into the disaster said today that experts found a broken joint on the track. Sources said technicians on site discovered wear and tear on the joints between sections of the rails, known as fishplates, which they said indicated the fault had been present for some time.
They found that defective joints created gaps between rail sections that widened as the train continued to travel on the track. The source, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue, said technicians believed a defective joint was key to determining the exact cause of the accident.
The fatal accident occurred near Adamuz in the province of Córdoba, killing dozens of people and injuring more than 120 people, 48 of whom are still in hospital and 12 in intensive care. it It may take a month for an investigation to determine the cause” said Transportation Secretary Óscar Puente.
Jose Trigueros, president of the Association of Road Engineers, said his preliminary analysis of images and information released by authorities suggested “a landing gear failure in the rear unit” of the Freccia 1000 high-speed train operated by Iryo, which derailed as it traveled north from Malaga to Madrid.
Most of the casualties are believed to have been on a second train operated by Alvia, operated by Spanish public rail company Renfe. The train was traveling south from Madrid to Huelva when it collided with the derailed Illano train and was pushed off the tracks and into an embankment.
ADIF reported on social media infrastructure problems in Adamuz, ranging from signal failures to problems with overhead wires, causing high-speed trains between Madrid and Andalusia to be delayed 10 times since 2022.
The Spanish government was criticized last year for a series of network delays caused by blackouts and theft of copper cables from lines. The network crosses large tracts of open countryside and is therefore vulnerable to cable theft.
Mr Puente said the Iryo trains, which have been in service for less than four years, underwent a comprehensive overhaul of the tracks in May last year (before the warning from the SEMAF union), with an investment of €700m (£607m). Iryo said the train was last inspected on January 15.
The transport minister called the accident “very bizarre” and said the derailment likely would not have killed anyone but for the oncoming train.
Renfe chief Alvaro Fernández Heredia ruled out the possibility of human error and said the 20-second gap between the first derailment and the train traveling in the opposite direction was too short to activate the automatic braking system.
“It’s definitely some kind of rolling stock or infrastructure failure and it’s going to take time [to investigate],” he said.
The Alvia train apparently hit pieces of the Iryo’s derailed carriage or landing gear, officials said. The head of Renfe said that the 27-year-old driver of the Alvia train died in the accident.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Monday promised a “thorough and absolutely transparent” investigation into the crash.
The country’s high-speed rail network, with 3,622 kilometers of track, is the largest in Europe and the second largest in the world after China, according to ADIF. Spain opened its high-speed rail network to private competition in 2020, aiming to provide a low-cost alternative to Renfe’s AVE trains.
Iryo is a joint venture between Italy’s national rail operator Ferrovie dello Stato, airline Air Nostrum and Spanish infrastructure investment fund Globalvia. It will start operations in November 2022, starting from the Madrid-Barcelona route and gradually expand to other major cities.
The Iryo ETR1000 trains are manufactured by Hitachi Rail’s European partner Bombardier for Trenitalia, a subsidiary of Ferrovie. Renfe’s Alvia trains are manufactured by local manufacturers CAF and Talgo.