Why not spend one day of pensions on fitting trains with GPS?
A tweet compares the cost of one day of pensions with fitting trains with GPS. The real system uses trackside balises every few kilometres, not continuous location.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
The tweet complains that the rail network has no continuous GPS location and suggests paying for it with one day of pensions. The reality is that the signalling system uses trackside balises, not satellites, and rolling it out is more expensive and slower than a simple receiver.
A post by a user on X compares two figures that have nothing in common: what one day of pensions costs and what it would cost to fit trains with GPS. The idea is circulating in a context of recent rail accidents and doubts about how trains are located. The tweet claims that Atocha does not know where the trains are and that the system only shows "the last checkpoint crossed every few tens of km".
## What the tweet says and what it does not say
The text claims that the network has no continuous location and that this is a "delusion" in 2026. It provides no figures on cost or on the number of trains. The comparison with one day of pensions is hyperbole, not a calculation. It is worth separating the legitimate complaint about the lack of real-time information from the technical claim: the rail signalling system does not work with GPS, but with balises installed along the track that the train reads as it passes.
## Balises on the track, not satellites
The **ERTMS** system and its level **2** use balises and radio transmission to know where each train is, with metre-level accuracy on equipped sections. Outside those sections, location is coarser. Fitting GPS to every train does not solve the problem: the satellite gives position, but it does not guarantee that the train stops on its own or that the control centre knows the state of the track. That requires signalling, not a receiver.
## The real cost is not one day of pensions
One day of contributory pensions in Spain costs around **400 million euros** a day, according to the system's annual spending. The pending rollout of ERTMS on the conventional network is measured in billions of euros and years. The tweet's comparison is good for venting anger, not for budgeting. The problem is not the price of a GPS chip, but that of the infrastructure that makes it useful.
A post by a user on X compares two figures that have nothing in common: what one day of pensions costs and what it would cost to fit trains with GPS. The idea is circulating in a context of recent rail accidents and doubts about how trains are located. The tweet claims that Atocha does not know where the trains are and that the system only shows "the last checkpoint crossed every few tens of km".
## What the tweet says and what it does not say
The text claims that the network has no continuous location and that this is a "delusion" in 2026. It provides no figures on cost or on the number of trains. The comparison with one day of pensions is hyperbole, not a calculation. It is worth separating the legitimate complaint about the lack of real-time information from the technical claim: the rail signalling system does not work with GPS, but with balises installed along the track that the train reads as it passes.
## Balises on the track, not satellites
The **ERTMS** system and its level **2** use balises and radio transmission to know where each train is, with metre-level accuracy on equipped sections. Outside those sections, location is coarser. Fitting GPS to every train does not solve the problem: the satellite gives position, but it does not guarantee that the train stops on its own or that the control centre knows the state of the track. That requires signalling, not a receiver.
## The real cost is not one day of pensions
One day of contributory pensions in Spain costs around **400 million euros** a day, according to the system's annual spending. The pending rollout of ERTMS on the conventional network is measured in billions of euros and years. The tweet's comparison is good for venting anger, not for budgeting. The problem is not the price of a GPS chip, but that of the infrastructure that makes it useful.
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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 (1 replies).
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