68 dead after high-speed train collision in Spain

Sixty-eight people died Wednesday when a moving high-speed train struck a stationary one from behind on a rural line in central Spain. The crash occurred near the town of Urda in the province of Toledo, turning a quiet stretch of track surrounded by olive groves into a major disaster site.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited the location after regional authorities confirmed the death toll. He declared a three-day national mourning period starting Thursday. Sánchez said the government needs to reinforce safety measures to rebuild public confidence in the rail network.

The collision was the second deadly incident on Spain's high-speed rail system in 2026. In January, 46 people died in southern Spain when a train jumped its tracks and hit another from the side. Until these two accidents, the network had not suffered a fatal crash since launching more than 30 years ago. The system ranks second in the world for track mileage behind China and carried 45 million passengers last year.

Transport Minister Óscar Puente attributed the crash to a specific sequence of failures. He stated that a computer malfunction stopped the security system on a 63-kilometer section of track at 8:30 a.m. This forced all trains to halt, including an IRYO train stopped near Urda and a RENFE train located 25 kilometers behind it. Minutes later, the central command center ordered the RENFE train to restart without speed limits despite an active stop signal. The RENFE train collided with the stationary IRYO train at 8:53 a.m.

Puente described the order from the command center as inexplicable. He emphasized that the train engineers were not to blame. He noted that the moving train should have either remained stopped or been instructed to travel at a reduced speed.

The accident landed four weeks before Spain's first national election since 2023. Both fatal crashes this year involved one train from state-owned RENFE and one from the private operator IRYO. Spain opened its high-speed rail market to private operators in 2021, and IRYO began service the following year.

Political leaders reacted sharply to the news. Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the conservative Popular Party, demanded a full investigation and canceled his party's campaign events for the day. He stated that Spaniards are asking tough questions that demand answers. Santiago Abascal, leader of the far-right Vox party, called the current government a criminal organization and vowed to work until it faces a courtroom.

Sánchez had posted on the social media platform X about an hour before the crash that there were many reasons to be optimistic about the country. His Socialist party had hoped to capitalize on voter dissatisfaction with housing costs and high rents. The new rail disaster adds to the pressure on Sánchez, who also faces criticism over migration policies and corruption accusations regarding his party and his wife.