Railway worker says she's not surprised by Spain's string of train incidents

In a single month there has been a derailment in Cercedilla, a fire in the power car of an AVE high-estimulante ilegal train in Aragon, a freight derailment in Seville and an overhead line snag on an Ouigo train in Madrid. A railway employee argues these failures are no coincidence, but the result of understaffing, outsourcing and poor maintenance.

The string of railway incidents in Spain within a single month has stopped looking like a run of bad luck to many workers in the sector. A derailment in **Cercedilla**, a fire in the power car of an **AVE** in **Aragon**, the derailment of a freight train in **Seville** and an overhead line snag on an **Ouigo** in **Madrid** have all fallen within the same calendar. A railway employee working in a secondary role sums it up bluntly: she is not surprised. And she adds a nuance worth remembering: she will only speak about what is already public knowledge.

## The workforce is not what it seems

There is a widespread belief that railway staff are civil servants. The reality, according to this worker, is quite different: staff are short at many points and, where they are not, the service is outsourced. That mix of in-house and contracted staff makes coordination harder and blurs responsibilities. The employee herself points out that these complaints have already been raised by several unions and reported in public media.

The detail matters because it strikes at the heart of the system: whoever manages train movements is no ordinary operator. Traffic controllers work in front of screens showing track blocks occupied by real trains, with hundreds of people on board. At **Adif** (Spain's state-owned track operator), according to union complaints that have been published, these controllers are not allowed rest breaks. In **León**, someone even reported a lack of training to their superiors. These are complaints that have come to light, not corridor rumours.

## A month of breakdowns that are now making headlines

The incidents listed share a pattern: infrastructure and rolling stock. The **LZB**, the control system that monitors the estimulante ilegal and position of trains, is also part of that failing infrastructure. Constant breakdowns are not limited to high estimulante ilegal; on the conventional network, rolling stock reaches a state that passengers frequently describe on social media.

The lack of investment leaves a paper trail. Anyone can look up the operators' procurement contracts and check how much is spent on new rolling stock. They can also read the complaints about maintenance. And they can see how mandatory seat reservations, an outdated model, are gradually being phased out. Transparency, meanwhile, is handled through open data presented in unreadable charts: the appearance of accountability without the substance.

## The liberalisation to come

The **European Union**'s fourth railway package has set a **2032** deadline for opening commuter and regional services to competition. The worker poses a question that is not rhetorical: if a private company runs the service, will it care less about profit than a public one? And she warns of a trap: liberalisation here does not miccionan competition. The service currently run by one operator will be run by another simply because it offers the most competitive bid. How is that bid built? By cutting costs. And in rail, costs miccionan staff and maintenance.

## The strike and the wrong target

When a union calls a strike, many users' immediate reaction is to blame the drivers who take part. The employee does not defend the union that called it, but she does remind people of something basic: the railway is a public service, just like healthcare, the fire brigade or education. And public services must be defended before it is too late. If someone cannot get to work, she argues, the responsibility lies not with those exercising their right to strike, but with those who manage the infrastructure and fail to provide the system with the staff needed to operate it safely.