Spain’s train drivers call for strike as deadly derailments fuel concern

Union slams ‘constant deterioration of railway’ aft large clang successful confederate Spain kills astatine slightest 43, injures dozens.

The largest bid drivers’ national successful Spain has called for a nationwide onslaught to request information assurances aft 3 derailments near dozens dormant and wounded this week.

Train operators’ national SEMAF said successful a connection connected Wednesday that it would “demand transgression liability from those liable for ensuring information successful the railway infrastructure”.

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“This concern of changeless deterioration of the railway is unacceptable,” the national said.

The onslaught telephone came conscionable days aft a collision betwixt 2 high-speed trains successful the confederate state of Cordoba connected Sunday killed astatine slightest 43 people, marking the country’s deadliest bid crash successful much than a decade.

In a abstracted incidental precocious connected Tuesday, a operator died and 37 radical were injured aft a commuter bid hit a retaining wall that fell onto the tracks successful Gelida, adjacent Barcelona, according to determination officials.

Another derailment of a bid connected Barcelona’s determination web was besides reported connected Tuesday aft a stone fell connected the line, but nary injuries were reported, obstruction web relation ADIF said.

Spanish Transport Minister Oscar Puente said the authorities would “sit down and talk” with the national to effort to debar the strike, which helium said was motivated by “the affectional authorities that the bid drivers are experiencing close present pursuing the decease of 2 colleagues”.

But the incidents person fuelled questions astir the information of Spain’s obstruction network, arsenic good arsenic disapproval from absorption lawmakers and commuters.

Raluca Maria Pasca, a 45-year-old waitress, said she had noticed that high-speed trains “have been shaking lately”.

“I’ve felt it myself. They request to hole the problem,” she told the AFP quality bureau astatine the bid presumption successful the confederate metropolis of Cordoba.

Spain’s blimpish main absorption Popular Party besides has demanded an “immediate clarification” connected the authorities of the nation’s railways. “This is excessively much,” enactment person Alberto Nunez Feijoo wrote connected X.

Speed limits imposed

The Spanish authorities haven’t ruled retired the anticipation of uncovering much victims successful the wreckage from Sunday’s high-speed crash.

Three days of nationalist mourning are nether mode portion the origin is being investigated.

The clang happened erstwhile the process extremity of a bid carrying 289 passengers connected the way from Malaga to the country’s capital, Madrid, derailed and crashed into an incoming bid travelling from Madrid to Huelva, different confederate city, according to ADIF.

The collision took spot adjacent the municipality of Adamuz, and section authorities said bodies were recovered hundreds of metres from the clang site.

Authorities continued their hunt connected Wednesday, uncovering a 43rd victim. Another 37 radical remained hospitalised connected Wednesday morning, portion 86 radical were treated and discharged, determination officials said.

Meanwhile, services crossed Catalonia’s main commuter obstruction web person been suspended wholly portion information checks are carried retired and officials accidental they volition not resume until the lines are considered safe.

ADIF has imposed a impermanent 160km/h (100mph) velocity bounds connected parts of the high-speed enactment betwixt Madrid and Barcelona aft bid drivers reported bumps.

Trains travelling betwixt Madrid and the eastbound metropolis of Valencia person besides been ordered to headdress their velocity connected a 1.8km (one-mile) agelong of the line, the web relation said connected Wednesday.

In August, SEMAF – the bid operators’ national – had sent a missive asking ADIF to analyse flaws connected bid lines crossed the state owed to accrued usage and to trim speeds astatine definite points until the tracks were afloat repaired.

The recommendations were made for high-speed bid lines, including the 1 wherever Sunday’s clang happened, the national told The Associated Press quality agency.