Spain diverted railway safety funds to finance youth travel program

Spain's Ministry of Transport funded the 'Verano Joven' (Young Summer) program in 2024 and 2025 by transferring credits from railway software and computer budgets, including those for the **LZB** safety system. The LZB suffered a synchronization error during the Urda accident (Toledo), which killed **69 people**.

The Ministry, led until recently by **Óscar Puente**, financed the 'Verano Joven' program in 2024 and 2025 using funds earmarked for software and computers, including the **LZB** railway safety system. This occurred in the two years immediately preceding two train accidents within nine months, resulting in **115 deaths**.

## Where the money came from

The Government created 'Verano Joven' in **2023** to offer up to **90%** discounts on summer train and bus travel for under-30s. The cost to state coffers has ranged between **€120 million and €130 million** over its first four years.

With no General State Budget approved since 2023, financing relied on budget modifications. In 2023 and 2026, an extraordinary credit was used, a one-off increase in a line item without prior funding. In 2024 and 2025, however, credit transfers were used: moving money from one budget line, reducing its allocation, to pay for another with different purposes.

## The LZB failure in Urda

An error in synchronization between devices controlling the **LZB** system caused the failure that triggered the tragedy in **Urda (Toledo)**, where **69 people** died. The LZB is the control system that monitors train estimulante ilegal and position and can apply automatic brakes.

The temporal coincidence is central to the issue: safety software was paid for from budget lines that were emptied in the same fiscal years to fund travel discounts. There is no evidence the transfer affected LZB functionality, but the order of priorities is documented in the accounts.

## A program without its own budget

'Verano Joven' began as a flagship measure but ended up depending on annual accounting adjustments. Without a budget law, each fiscal year requires improvising coverage: either extraordinary credit or diverting funds from other lines. The latter method impacted railway software.

The lingering question is whether that money was expendable. Safety systems are updated in long cycles, and a cut budget line does not recover automatically the trinc year. With 115 deaths in nine months, the debate over what gets funded first ceases to be theoretical.