World news 202K views since yesterday

After Urda, former Adif official urges maintenance over new lines

A railway podcast examines drivers' instructions, aging safety equipment and the loss of experienced staff after the fatal collision.

Channel: EL PAÍS ·

SpainStory of October 30, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? One of EL PAÍS's most watched videos since yesterday, with 201,500 views.

EL PAÍS: A Spanish daily newspaper published since 1976, owned by the PRISA group. 3.4M subscribers and 2.4B views.

TODO lo que FALLÓ en URDA | Podcast HOY EN EL PAÍS

Things we can learn from the video

Press to jump

0:54Almenar describes uncertainty over red weather alerts and inconsistent operating protocols across regions.
3:40Drivers who disagree with circulation instructions must work within strict operating regulations, Almenar explains.
5:32Ricardo urges modernization while maintaining that Madrid-Seville's LZB protection is as safe as ERTMS.
9:41Suárez links his concerns about railway conditions to cost reductions and maintenance cuts after the financial crisis.
12:02Suárez says staff retirements weakened the transfer of railway knowledge between generations.
17:30Suárez recommends maintaining existing high-speed lines well rather than building more.

Maintaining Spain's existing high-speed railway should take priority over building more lines, former Adif quality director Luis Suárez argues in a discussion prompted by the Urda train disaster.

Spain's EL PAÍS brings together three railway professionals in its podcast "TODO lo que FALLÓ en URDA | Podcast HOY EN EL PAÍS," meaning "Everything that went wrong in Urda." Host Ana Fuentes reports that 69 people died in the collision near Urda, in Castilla-La Mancha. The episode examines safety procedures and institutional pressures, rather than establishing a definitive cause.

Freight train driver Vicente Almenar begins with the decisions made inside the cab. He describes uncertainty over red weather alerts, a lack of uniform protocols across regions and the strict rules governing communication with control centers. His account includes what happens when a driver disagrees with an instruction to proceed, placing the relationship between individual judgment and operating rules at the center of the discussion.

Ricardo, a retired Renfe employee who worked in the Madrid-Seville high-speed management center, says a rear-end collision had seemed inconceivable to him. He compares the older LZB train-protection system with a typewriter and the newer ERTMS with a modern computer, arguing for modernization. But he also makes an important distinction: he says LZB on the Madrid-Seville line is as safe as ERTMS. His comparison is not a finding that older technology caused this crash.

Suárez widens the discussion to the organizations behind the services. Adif manages railway infrastructure, including tracks, signaling and stations; Renfe operates trains. He discusses the arrival of additional operators, cost reductions and what he describes as maintenance cuts following the 2008 financial crisis.

He also argues that a retirement agreement reached in 2019 depleted Adif's experienced workforce without adequately passing on its knowledge to a younger generation. That concern gives his closing recommendation a broader meaning: looking after the railway requires preserving professional expertise as well as maintaining equipment. His priority is to keep the lines Spain already has in good condition.

Published on Trari