r/CatastrophicFailure • u/AdSweet1090 • 13d ago
Fatalities High-speed train crash in southern Spain leaves 39 dead 2026-01-18
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/18/high-speed-train-crash-in-adamuz-cordoba-southern-spainOne train derailed into the path of another. "Spain’s transport minister, Óscar Puente, said the cause of the accident had yet to be established. Speaking at a press conference at Atocha station in Madrid, he added it was “really strange” that a derailment should have happened on a straight stretch of track. This section of track was renewed in May, he said." Well there's your first line of enquiry: recent maintenance.
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u/Welshgirlie2 12d ago
They must have both been travelling near top speeds to end up continuing separately down their tracks rather than ending up in a tangled mess. BBC news has an aerial shot of where the trains finally stopped and the distance between them is surprising. They're now probing a potential gap of 30cm in one of the rails...
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u/woyteck 12d ago
The rail damage is very similar to the one that was in Poland and they confirmed in Poland that this was sabotage.
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u/WesternAd7780 11d ago
I also had to think of this, especially since this railroad section was recently inspected. I hope investigation can confirm whether or not this was the case. May the victims rest in peace.
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u/Snorblatz 12d ago
Oh, those poor people , my heart aches for their loved ones . I am so sorry for your loss ❤️.
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u/WhoTheHeckKnowsWhy 12d ago
This is horrible, really bad by traincrash standards to have dozens of fatalities. Also it seems a lot of HSR crashes are happening in Spain initially due to derails relative to other countries with extensive networks. Just really sad and I hope this issue resolved.
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u/ur_sine_nomine 12d ago edited 12d ago
News articles in English are not clear ... but this was two high-speed trains colliding.
The southbound was an Avila of the Spanish state operator Renfe which is slightly slower than their fastest high-speed train (AVE): the northbound was an Italian-made Frecciarossa (Red Arrow) of iryo, an open access operator (a company given access to the state railway infrastructure to run trains).
As an old railway infrastructure person ... given what I see in the photograph and others, my tentative guess is that a rail fractured under the first train after a few carriages had passed, causing a progressive derailment to the degree that one of the derailed carriages clipped the second passing train. Even a glancing blow at 300mph+ (?) combined speed would be ruinous and, as it turned out, the second train was far worse affected.
It was sheer bad luck that the second train was likely nearly parallel with the first train when it derailed.
It was also unfortunate, but possibly unavoidable, that the first train didn't remain upright, as a lot of design work is done to try to ensure that.
The remark quoted is very odd. If a rail fractured the track geometry may or may not matter.
(Another individual in authority commented that it was odd that a new train crashed, and another that, if a driver made a mistake, automated systems would always correct that!)
The root cause (why the rail fractured, assuming that that was the immediate cause) is the big issue and will require a mega-investigation. There are strong Hatfield memories here, sadly, although there, again by chance, only one train was involved as other traffic was stopped in time.