An Oct. 28 train collision near Toledo left at least 69 people dead, according to POLITICO. The next day, EL PAÍS spoke with passengers at Madrid’s Chamartín station who had doubts about traveling by train.
Carlota Rodríguez Font, a student waiting to be rebooked, told EL PAÍS she planned to find another way home: “I’m going to buy a plane or bus ticket. Anything but the train.” Cristina Pérez said she had boarded a train but, since January’s Adamuz crash, buys tickets thinking, “I hope it doesn’t happen to me.” That earlier crash killed 46 people, EL PAÍS reported.
POLITICO reports that Spain’s transport ministry described a preliminary sequence for the Toledo collision: A computer malfunction disabled a signaling system installed in 1992, after which railway officials took control and authorized a train to proceed along a track where another had stopped. Signaling expert Jaime Tamarit told POLITICO that a train-protection system should “guard against human error.” Adif, Spain’s railway infrastructure manager, has defended its maintenance practices and says it has complied with safety requirements, POLITICO reports.
The trains involved were not using ERTMS, a European signaling system that can automatically brake trains in certain circumstances, according to POLITICO. Investigators had yet to determine whether it would have changed the outcome. POLITICO also describes the condition of Spain’s railways as an issue ahead of the Nov. 29 snap election. Opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo said Spaniards “deserve answers.”
