Spain's transport minister will not resign after train collision that killed 69

Spain's transport minister, Óscar Puente, has said he does not intend to resign after the rail disaster in central Spain. BBC News reported on Friday 30 October 2026 that there had been calls for him to go after two high-speed trains collided.

What happened

The crash took place on Wednesday 28 October 2026, a few minutes before 9am, in Toledo province. An AVE high-speed train run by the state operator Renfe hit the back of a stationary train belonging to the private operator Iryo. Both trains were travelling from Madrid towards Seville.

The death toll was revised several times. Early reports spoke of several dozen dead, then authorities in the Castilla-La Mancha region confirmed 68 deaths. On Thursday 29 October 2026 one of the injured died in hospital, raising the toll to 69. Earlier reports said 53 injured people had been taken to hospital, 15 of them seriously hurt.

The minister's findings

Puente set out the sequence of events. At about 8.30am a communication error between three computers switched off the LZB system, which automatically controls high-speed train traffic, along a section of about 63 kilometres. The system stopped all trains on that stretch.

A worker in the traffic control centre then allowed the Renfe train to continue, even though the Iryo train was ahead of it and the signal was red. The train travelled about 25 kilometres and hit the stationary train at about 8.53am. The minister called the worker's decision "inexplicable" and said it went against the procedures in force. The exact speed at the moment of impact was not yet known. The ministry and the infrastructure manager Adif were also examining the possibility of human error, as reported by the Spanish daily El País.

A second disaster this year

This is the second serious high-speed rail disaster in Spain in 2026. In January two high-speed trains collided near Adamuz in Córdoba province, and according to Polish media the combined death toll from the two accidents has passed one hundred. After the January crash, Puente said its cause was hard to explain.

After the Toledo collision, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez wrote that he was shocked and said he was in constant contact with the minister and the president of the region, Emiliano García-Page.

The causes of the crash are still being investigated, and the minister's conclusions are preliminary.