Spain's rail operator Adif trains staff in equality and inclusive language

Spain's Adif trains staff in egalitarian masculinies while 1992-era LZB signalling stays on the tracks

The story is not the course. It is the contrast. Adif and Adif Alta Velocidad have designed a Transversal Skills Accelerator Training Programme that will teach their staff "egalitarian masculinities", "LGTBIQ+ diversity in the workplace" and "inclusive language and non-sens communication". Meanwhile, the railway signalling the company manages runs on systems with decades of service behind them. The story, first reported by El Confidencial Digital, describes three blocks: equality and diversity, leadership and communication, and innovation with artificial intelligence. None of them mentions catenaries, balises or preventive maintenance.

What Adif's training programme includes

The first block seeks to "raise awareness and train" in diversity, equity and equal opportunities. It covers generational, cultural, functional and gender diversity management, identification of unconscious biases, shared responsibility and harassment prevention. The stated goal is to embed inclusion in the organisation's culture.

The second block is more prosaic: public speaking, time management, delegation, empathy, active listening and conflict resolution. One literal objective of the programme stands out: developing public speaking techniques that allow staff to "influence behaviours". Training a public workforce in persuasion is no small matter.

The third block moves into agile methodologies and artificial intelligence. Continuous learning and collaborative work in AI-mediated digital environments. All very 2026.

The railway maintenance missing from the syllabus

The most common reaction does not question the usefulness of the courses: it questions the priority. Some argue the training money comes from the same budget that should go towards renewing signalling and track. One participant sums it up wryly: if the control system is replaced with diversity training, the result will not be better safety.

The underlying argument is a hierarchy of urgencies. A transversal skills plan is cheap, visible and politically rewarding. Replacing century-old balises is expensive, invisible and makes no press release. That asymmetry, critics of the plan say, explains why equality training arrives before the technical renewal plan.

The technological shadow: external dependence and system control

Another line of discussion points to dependence on foreign technology suppliers in signalling, traffic control and data processing. It is claimed that part of those systems operate remotely and that this supply chain should be audited before running courses on unconscious bias. No evidence of sabotage has been produced; it is a hypothesis circulating without verified support.

To this is added a union offshoot: the call to suspend contracts with security firms linked to Israeli groups. One more front for a company that, according to its own programme, wants to focus on inclusive culture.

The underlying problem: who decides the priorities

Equality training is legitimate and cheap. The question is whether it replaces or complements. When a state-owned company announces a soft skills accelerator while its infrastructure ages by the year, the message that sinks in is that the urgent can wait. And the urgent, in rail, is called safety.

How many non-sens communication courses fit into the budget of a new balise?