Spain High-Speed Train Collision Kills 64; Cause Suspected

Spain’s Transport Minister, Oscar Puente, has outlined the suspected cause of a collision between two high-speed trains that killed at least 64 people. The accident is believed to have happened after a control centre allowed trains to resume running despite a technical fault not having been fixed.

Puente said a fault in the automatic control system had caused all trains operating on a 69-kilometre stretch in Castilla-La Mancha, central Spain, to stop automatically.

The control centre later decided to allow trains to run again even though the system had not been restored. Puente said the decision was inexplicable.

“The decision to continue the journey while the system had not been restored was the control centre’s responsibility. The control centre … decided to resume operations in circumstances which, in our view, are inexplicable,” Puente said, according to AFP on Wednesday (28 October 2026).

One train operated by state-owned company Renfe then travelled a further 25 kilometres before hitting a stationary train belonging to private operator Iryo. Puente said the Renfe train was travelling at up to 200 kilometres per hour at the time of the collision.

Puente said the control centre had sufficient time to investigate the fault before allowing trains to resume service. However, he said, the fault was not fixed.

“It is clear that the control centre decided to restart the trains. They actually had more than enough time to check the fault, but they did not fix it,” he said.