Puente also withdrew from the November 29 election after the crash
Spain’s transport minister Óscar Puente resigned Tuesday and withdrew from the November 29 general election after a high-speed train crash killed 69 people. He announced the resignation and election withdrawal during a parliamentary hearing, hours after presenting proposed safety measures for the country’s high-speed rail network. The crash occurred near Urda, about 80 miles south of Madrid, and was one of Europe’s worst railway disasters this century.
His departure came as the opposition demanded his resignation, unions criticised his response to the disaster and Socialist prime minister Pedro Sánchez trailed in opinion polls. The crash and an earlier collision have overshadowed campaigning for the November 29 ballot, with critics focusing on rail safety, maintenance and working conditions.
Puente had ruled out resigning on several occasions since the disaster. At the end of a lengthy hearing before lawmakers, he said: “I wish to inform you that I am not only stepping down from my position as minister of transport, but that I am also withdrawing my name from the lists for the early legislative elections on 29 November.”
Earlier in the day, Puente presented measures to improve safety and said the government would “work tirelessly to achieve and regain the public’s trust in high-speed rail.” He had also pledged to work “tirelessly” to restore confidence in the world’s second-largest high-speed rail network.
The crash occurred Wednesday last week outside the village of Urda, about 80 miles south of Madrid. A train operated by the state-owned company Renfe struck the rear of a stationary train belonging to the private Spanish operator Iryo.
The failure of an automatic safety system halted all trains on a 39-mile stretch of track, but a control centre nonetheless authorized the Renfe service to resume its journey.
Among the measures announced was the creation of software for control centres that would issue automatic alerts and make it easier to spot anomalies in traffic. Puente said an AI agent would oversee the system and “minimise the possibility of human error,” describing the proposal as unprecedented. In scenarios where a control centre operator made a decision while the automatic safety system was down, a second operator would have to confirm it.
The opposition, which had demanded Puente’s resignation, and unions criticised him for appearing to pin all the blame for the disaster on one control centre operator.
The train drivers’ union Semaf, which called strikes at Renfe for 10 and 12 November, denounced worsening working conditions and the use of “degraded systems.”
Critics said investment in maintenance had not kept up with the increase in passenger numbers since the 2021 liberalisation of Spain’s rail network. That liberalisation allowed private companies to break Renfe’s decades-long monopoly.
In an apparent recognition of the unions’ demands, Puente said the working conditions of control centre operators would be reformed, including their breaks and by monitoring their fatigue levels.
Puente announced an aid package of €30m (£25m) for the families of the dead and the scores of people injured in the crash.
Another collision in the southern region of Andalusia in January killed 46 people on the same key line connecting Madrid with Seville. The line was Spain’s first high-speed route when it opened in 1992.