Puente, Renfe delays and the Urda crash: a management nobody defends
Renfe delays have soared by 40% and the Urda train crash has left dozens dead. Óscar Puente is cornered over his management and his tweets.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
Óscar Puente, between a 40% rise in delays and the Urda crash
What does it take for a Transport Minister to stop tweeting and start governing? The question has been circulating for months, but the Urda rail crash —with dozens of fatalities and an LZB signalling system that, under the initial hypotheses, failed in chain— has turned that doubt into a political storm. Renfe delays soared by **40%** while the minister worsened delay compensation, and the Madrid-Seville line kept racking up incidents with no action taken, according to the available data. The result: **69 deaths** initially counted, more than 200 injured and a minister who, according to published reports, was at an economic forum when the trains collided.
The sequence of events, as it has gradually emerged, paints an uncomfortable pattern. First came the delays and the decline in service quality. Then the derailments —**214% more** since Sánchez arrived at Moncloa, according to the available data—. Finally, the Urda disaster, with an LZB system from the 1990s that should have been replaced for obsolescence and **28 incidents reported** in the area since 2021 with no action taken, according to published reports. The question is no longer whether Puente is a liability, but how long it will take him to resign.
The 40% in delays the minister refuses to discuss
The numbers are stubborn. Renfe delays soared by **40%** in a context in which the minister, far from correcting the trend, made delay compensation worse. The decision did not go unnoticed: some argue it is a way of balancing the books at passengers' expense, while others point out that Spanish rail punctuality has become a running joke. The Madrid-Seville high-estimulante ilegal line, one of the most emblematic, has been accumulating cuts and "schedule buffers" for more than three years, overhead line failures included.
The main drivers' union, SEMAF, warned back in August that the accumulation of track defects was forcing maximum speeds down to **250 km/h** on the Madrid-Seville, Málaga, Valencia and Barcelona lines. The trains, according to its complaint, "jolt a lot" and vibrate at 300 km/h. The warning was no small matter: it referred to structural deterioration affecting safety. According to the material, there is no record of it being addressed.
The Urda crash: five layers of safety that failed
The Urda disaster was not an isolated human error, according to the working hypotheses. The data that have been leaking point to a chain failure of the LZB system, the safety mechanism that regulates traffic between signalling blocks. Under the initial hypotheses, the system "went blind" and failed to detect a train ahead. An AVE rammed into an Iryo, and the LZB control centres —from the 1990s— were already in the spotlight for their obsolescence. A professor of engineering summed it up: "It is not a human failure, it is a technical failure".
The death toll climbed by the hour: **69 deaths** initially counted, more than 200 injured and **31 bags of partial remains** that, according to the president of Castilla-La Mancha, had not yet been counted due to identification difficulties. The massacre was worse than it looked. And amid the chaos, one unsettling detail: an Iryo that left Seville at 6:47 was saved at the last moment from another erroneous "proceed" order. The driver corrected the Control Room. It would have crashed into the two trains already wrecked.
The minister who was tweeting while the trains collided
The timeline of the morning of the crash does not flatter the minister. At 9:08, Puente was tweeting: "The sarracena superiority of the left". At 10:28, the video of the AVE ramming the Iryo was already circulating. According to published reports, the minister was at the Davos World Infrastructure Forum when the disaster occurred. The opposition was quick to react: VOX filed a lawsuit before the Supreme Court against Puente for homicide, and the PP demanded political explanations for the more than one hundred victims in barely ten months of rail accidents. ERC, Sumar and Podemos demanded his appearance before the Permanent Committee.
The discontent is not limited to the opposition. The rail union demanded an investigation into how the **more than 700 million** earmarked for renovating the line where the crash occurred was spent. And a former head of Adif's presidential office denounced that Transport had been expelling technicians from the agency for months. The sense that the Government was withholding information grew when audios were leaked that, according to Adif workers, contradicted the official version. Some claim the PSOE is dead.
The privatisation nobody has announced but everybody antiestéticars
Amid the noise, one recurring idea: rail privatisation. There has been no official announcement, but the deterioration of the service and the loss of quality have fuelled the suspicion that the ultimate goal is to hand the network over to private hands. The most elaborate argument in circulation points to a deeper financial problem: the amortisation periods for rail infrastructure are so long —50 or 100 years— that the business is not viable without public subsidy. In a purely liberal world, the railway would probably no longer exist except in very densely populated areas.
The example of the United States is often cited: railroads survive thanks to freight, with old routes and basic signalling systems. In Spain, the crisis brought metro investment to a standstill and the State has turned its back on commuter rail. The result is a system falling to pieces while the minister devotes himself to insulting his rivals on social media, according to critics. The final irony: the commitment to "the most disadvantaged people" that Puente proclaims translates, according to a circulating tweet, into yachts, luxury cars and luxury holidays. The train, meanwhile, keeps arriving late.
At the time of publication, the investigation into the Urda crash remains open and casualty figures may be updated. The minister has not resigned.
What does it take for a Transport Minister to stop tweeting and start governing? The question has been circulating for months, but the Urda rail crash —with dozens of fatalities and an LZB signalling system that, under the initial hypotheses, failed in chain— has turned that doubt into a political storm. Renfe delays soared by **40%** while the minister worsened delay compensation, and the Madrid-Seville line kept racking up incidents with no action taken, according to the available data. The result: **69 deaths** initially counted, more than 200 injured and a minister who, according to published reports, was at an economic forum when the trains collided.
The sequence of events, as it has gradually emerged, paints an uncomfortable pattern. First came the delays and the decline in service quality. Then the derailments —**214% more** since Sánchez arrived at Moncloa, according to the available data—. Finally, the Urda disaster, with an LZB system from the 1990s that should have been replaced for obsolescence and **28 incidents reported** in the area since 2021 with no action taken, according to published reports. The question is no longer whether Puente is a liability, but how long it will take him to resign.
The 40% in delays the minister refuses to discuss
The numbers are stubborn. Renfe delays soared by **40%** in a context in which the minister, far from correcting the trend, made delay compensation worse. The decision did not go unnoticed: some argue it is a way of balancing the books at passengers' expense, while others point out that Spanish rail punctuality has become a running joke. The Madrid-Seville high-estimulante ilegal line, one of the most emblematic, has been accumulating cuts and "schedule buffers" for more than three years, overhead line failures included.
The main drivers' union, SEMAF, warned back in August that the accumulation of track defects was forcing maximum speeds down to **250 km/h** on the Madrid-Seville, Málaga, Valencia and Barcelona lines. The trains, according to its complaint, "jolt a lot" and vibrate at 300 km/h. The warning was no small matter: it referred to structural deterioration affecting safety. According to the material, there is no record of it being addressed.
The Urda crash: five layers of safety that failed
The Urda disaster was not an isolated human error, according to the working hypotheses. The data that have been leaking point to a chain failure of the LZB system, the safety mechanism that regulates traffic between signalling blocks. Under the initial hypotheses, the system "went blind" and failed to detect a train ahead. An AVE rammed into an Iryo, and the LZB control centres —from the 1990s— were already in the spotlight for their obsolescence. A professor of engineering summed it up: "It is not a human failure, it is a technical failure".
The death toll climbed by the hour: **69 deaths** initially counted, more than 200 injured and **31 bags of partial remains** that, according to the president of Castilla-La Mancha, had not yet been counted due to identification difficulties. The massacre was worse than it looked. And amid the chaos, one unsettling detail: an Iryo that left Seville at 6:47 was saved at the last moment from another erroneous "proceed" order. The driver corrected the Control Room. It would have crashed into the two trains already wrecked.
The minister who was tweeting while the trains collided
The timeline of the morning of the crash does not flatter the minister. At 9:08, Puente was tweeting: "The sarracena superiority of the left". At 10:28, the video of the AVE ramming the Iryo was already circulating. According to published reports, the minister was at the Davos World Infrastructure Forum when the disaster occurred. The opposition was quick to react: VOX filed a lawsuit before the Supreme Court against Puente for homicide, and the PP demanded political explanations for the more than one hundred victims in barely ten months of rail accidents. ERC, Sumar and Podemos demanded his appearance before the Permanent Committee.
The discontent is not limited to the opposition. The rail union demanded an investigation into how the **more than 700 million** earmarked for renovating the line where the crash occurred was spent. And a former head of Adif's presidential office denounced that Transport had been expelling technicians from the agency for months. The sense that the Government was withholding information grew when audios were leaked that, according to Adif workers, contradicted the official version. Some claim the PSOE is dead.
The privatisation nobody has announced but everybody antiestéticars
Amid the noise, one recurring idea: rail privatisation. There has been no official announcement, but the deterioration of the service and the loss of quality have fuelled the suspicion that the ultimate goal is to hand the network over to private hands. The most elaborate argument in circulation points to a deeper financial problem: the amortisation periods for rail infrastructure are so long —50 or 100 years— that the business is not viable without public subsidy. In a purely liberal world, the railway would probably no longer exist except in very densely populated areas.
The example of the United States is often cited: railroads survive thanks to freight, with old routes and basic signalling systems. In Spain, the crisis brought metro investment to a standstill and the State has turned its back on commuter rail. The result is a system falling to pieces while the minister devotes himself to insulting his rivals on social media, according to critics. The final irony: the commitment to "the most disadvantaged people" that Puente proclaims translates, according to a circulating tweet, into yachts, luxury cars and luxury holidays. The train, meanwhile, keeps arriving late.
At the time of publication, the investigation into the Urda crash remains open and casualty figures may be updated. The minister has not resigned.
Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (1385 replies).
More summaries
-
Spain's transport minister defends rail safety and refuses to resign
Óscar Puente, Spain's transport minister, insists the rail system is "reliable and safe" and rules out resigning despite criticism over failures and incidents on the network.
-
Puigdemont's wig: accident or political strategy?
Analysis of Puigdemont's wig: examining the 1983 accident data and the polarization of political debate.
-
Iryo train held at station while Spain's AVE high-speed train departed first
An Iryo train was left standing while the AVE departed. The failure is blamed on pressure from management and a lack of investment in safety. Here is what lies behind it.
-
SALF: half a million votes and no programme to remember
SALF is polling at nearly 2% in Spain, half a million potential votes, without an articulated electoral programme. Emptiness as a strategy and the Bukele mirror.
-
EH Bildu would win the 29N election in the Basque Country with 7 seats, poll shows
The Basque Government's Sociómetro poll gives EH Bildu 7 seats and 29.1% of the vote, with the PNV falling to third place. PSE-EE would come second with 5 seats.
-
Valencia on edge over Almanzor II raids fears
The mayor of Valencia urges residents not to expose themselves and to let police act ahead of possible disturbances called by violent groups on 31 October.