The high-speed train collision in Spain that killed at least 68 people on 28 October 2026, the investigation into what failed, and the protests that followed.
New to this? How safe is high-speed rail, really?
The BBC reports the Spain train disaster is now clouding PM Pedro Sanchez's re-election chances. Read the story
Leaked audio recordings revealed the exchanges between Spain's train drivers and signallers in the moments before the crash that has killed at least 69 people. Victims named include a young athlete and a former government minister. Read the story
Our full minute-by-minute account of the Urda crash, from the 8:30 signalling failure to the 8:54 impact, with Spain's deadliest rail disasters compared. Read the story
A high-speed train collision in Spain killed at least 68 people and injured more than 100 on 28 October 2026. Riot police were deployed in Madrid as protests broke out over the crash.
The death toll in Spain's Toledo train crash rose to 69, and the transport minister called the order that let a train keep moving despite an earlier signal fault "inexplicable."
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez declared three days of national mourning, from 29 to 31 October, and set up an independent commission to investigate the crash.
More than 1,000 protesters gathered outside Spain's transport ministry in Madrid demanding the resignations of transport minister Oscar Puente and PM Pedro Sanchez. Read the story
Spain's train drivers held a nationwide strike on Thursday to demand stronger rail safety measures after the crash. Read the story
Investigators said a computer malfunction hit the rail control centre just before it gave the order that let the train keep moving toward the earlier signal fault. Read the story
Leaked recordings show a Madrid control centre telling a Renfe driver to resume at normal speed while a stopped train sat on the line ahead of him. Seventeen minutes later his train hit it, in a crash that has killed at least 69 people, including a former government minister and a 24-year-old athlete.
Read the storyA Renfe AVE hit a stopped Iryo train near Urda in Toledo province on 28 October 2026, killing at least 68 people and injuring more than 100. The safety system had already failed and six trains had been halted. Eighteen minutes after a control centre told one of them to move again, it was travelling 25km down the line into the back of another. A day later riot police were using tear gas on a crowd outside the transport ministry in Madrid.
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