Spain's transport minister calls 170 LZB failures on Madrid-Sevilla line normal
Spain's transport minister describes 170 LZB signalling failures on the Madrid-Sevilla line in one year as normal. ERTMS will arrive a year late, in January 2027.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
Óscar Puente argues that the 170 failures of the LZB signalling system on the Madrid-Sevilla line over a full year fall "within the European norm" and the "very stable" figures of the last six or seven years. The minister does admit, however, that public confidence in rail safety has disappeared.
There is a word that keeps coming up in public appearances about rail safety and that deserves close scrutiny: normality. The transport minister, **Óscar Puente**, used it to describe the fact that the LZB signalling system on the Madrid-Sevilla high-estimulante ilegal line went down **170 times** over the course of a year. Each of those failures forces operators to stop trains on the tracks and resume service under the guidance of Adif's traffic control centres. This is no minor maintenance glitch: it is the mechanism that governs train movements.
## What the LZB is and why it fails
The LZB is a signalling system that transmits instructions to the train through physical supports, both in the infrastructure and on board the train itself. When those supports fail, the system does not do things by halves: it blocks traffic immediately. Puente explained it with a distinction worth remembering. One thing is for the system to go down, another for it to fail. When it goes down, trains stop automatically, which is exactly what should happen to avoid risks. "Safety systems, whether called LZB or ERTMS, are not up in the air," the minister said, adding that those physical supports do fail.
The figure may surprise the non-specialist public, Puente admitted, but he placed it within the European norm and at "very stable" levels over the last **six or seven years**. Even below the average of the previous two years, according to his data. What he did not provide was the number of failures on other high-estimulante ilegal corridors, which have already been upgraded unlike Madrid-Sevilla.
## Iryo's warning that came first
Twenty-three days before the Urda accident, on **5 October**, Iryo's chief executive, **Fabrizio Favara**, warned in the Senate that LZB disconnections on the Madrid-Andalusia line were immobilising its trains and making it difficult to resume service. Recovering the connection, he said, took quite a long time. He did not call the system unsafe: he considered it safe, "though old." But he identified LZB-related incidents as the most frequent on the corridor, aside from extraordinary events such as a fire.
Puente added a technical nuance about Iryo's fleet: system failures appear to pose an additional problem for the company's **Hitachi** trains, which may have to undertake an investment to adapt. The most frequent issue on the corridor, the minister insisted, is connected with the LZB.
## ERTMS arrives a year late
The technological upgrade of the corridor is ERTMS, a more modern system that was meant to replace the LZB. According to the ministry's data, ERTMS was fully installed in June **2026** on the Madrid-Andalusia line and is currently in laboratory testing. It is expected to be operational in January **2027**, a year after the established deadline. Adif's chairman, **Pedro Marco de la Peña**, defended the decision to keep the LZB in service longer than planned: it was taken in **2021**, amid brutal traffic increases, and the delays are better than average. "We do what we can, including penalties for contractors," Puente added.
## The confidence the minister admits losing
The most uncomfortable admission of the appearance was not the 170 failures, but the confidence one. Puente admitted that the public has lost faith in rail safety and ruled out resigning. "I am the person in charge and I believe I can achieve it," he said about the task of restoring that confidence. The Urda accident, with **69 dead** after an AVE train collided with an Iryo train, began precisely with one of those signalling failures the minister describes as normal. The public debate is no longer just technical: it is about what that word actually means when lives are on the line.
There is a word that keeps coming up in public appearances about rail safety and that deserves close scrutiny: normality. The transport minister, **Óscar Puente**, used it to describe the fact that the LZB signalling system on the Madrid-Sevilla high-estimulante ilegal line went down **170 times** over the course of a year. Each of those failures forces operators to stop trains on the tracks and resume service under the guidance of Adif's traffic control centres. This is no minor maintenance glitch: it is the mechanism that governs train movements.
## What the LZB is and why it fails
The LZB is a signalling system that transmits instructions to the train through physical supports, both in the infrastructure and on board the train itself. When those supports fail, the system does not do things by halves: it blocks traffic immediately. Puente explained it with a distinction worth remembering. One thing is for the system to go down, another for it to fail. When it goes down, trains stop automatically, which is exactly what should happen to avoid risks. "Safety systems, whether called LZB or ERTMS, are not up in the air," the minister said, adding that those physical supports do fail.
The figure may surprise the non-specialist public, Puente admitted, but he placed it within the European norm and at "very stable" levels over the last **six or seven years**. Even below the average of the previous two years, according to his data. What he did not provide was the number of failures on other high-estimulante ilegal corridors, which have already been upgraded unlike Madrid-Sevilla.
## Iryo's warning that came first
Twenty-three days before the Urda accident, on **5 October**, Iryo's chief executive, **Fabrizio Favara**, warned in the Senate that LZB disconnections on the Madrid-Andalusia line were immobilising its trains and making it difficult to resume service. Recovering the connection, he said, took quite a long time. He did not call the system unsafe: he considered it safe, "though old." But he identified LZB-related incidents as the most frequent on the corridor, aside from extraordinary events such as a fire.
Puente added a technical nuance about Iryo's fleet: system failures appear to pose an additional problem for the company's **Hitachi** trains, which may have to undertake an investment to adapt. The most frequent issue on the corridor, the minister insisted, is connected with the LZB.
## ERTMS arrives a year late
The technological upgrade of the corridor is ERTMS, a more modern system that was meant to replace the LZB. According to the ministry's data, ERTMS was fully installed in June **2026** on the Madrid-Andalusia line and is currently in laboratory testing. It is expected to be operational in January **2027**, a year after the established deadline. Adif's chairman, **Pedro Marco de la Peña**, defended the decision to keep the LZB in service longer than planned: it was taken in **2021**, amid brutal traffic increases, and the delays are better than average. "We do what we can, including penalties for contractors," Puente added.
## The confidence the minister admits losing
The most uncomfortable admission of the appearance was not the 170 failures, but the confidence one. Puente admitted that the public has lost faith in rail safety and ruled out resigning. "I am the person in charge and I believe I can achieve it," he said about the task of restoring that confidence. The Urda accident, with **69 dead** after an AVE train collided with an Iryo train, began precisely with one of those signalling failures the minister describes as normal. The public debate is no longer just technical: it is about what that word actually means when lives are on the line.
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (8 replies).
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