Spain's transport minister resigns after train crash

Spain's Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Oscar Puente, announced his resignation amid intense public outcry following a major train disaster. Speaking before members of parliament in Madrid, the official also announced the withdrawal of his candidacy from the lists for the snap general elections scheduled for November 29.

The reason for the decision was an accident on the Madrid-Seville high-speed line, which occurred on October 28 near the village of Urda in the province of Toledo. Due to a failure in communication and safety systems, dispatchers manually authorized the departure of a train operated by Renfe, which collided at high speed with a stationary train belonging to the private company Iryo. As a result of the collision, 69 people died and over 200 were injured.

A transport minister in a country like Spain cannot remain in office after two accidents of such severity in less than a year, regardless of how different they were and regardless of whether there was direct responsibility for them.

Puente also recalled the January tragedy in the municipality of Adamuz, which claimed the lives of 46 people. The Spanish high-speed rail network, which is the second largest in the world after China's, had operated for over thirty years without any fatal accidents. Now, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez must determine a successor for the ministerial post, while industry services are switching to emergency safety protocols and new software for dispatch centers.