Spanish rail operator was warned of ‘severe wear and tear’ on high-speed rail tracks earlier than horror crash killed a minimum of 40 | EUROtoday

Spanish rail operator ADIF was warned about “severe wear and tear” on high-speed rail tracks final 12 months, earlier than a horrific collision killed a minimum of 40 individuals on Sunday.

The SEMAF practice drivers’ union wrote to the state-owned infrastructure supervisor in August to warning the operator about potholes, bumps and imbalances in overhead energy strains that it stated had been inflicting frequent breakdowns and damaging trains.

The letter warned about injury on one of many tracks the place two trains collided yesterday night close to Cordoba. It added that drivers had informed the operator of their issues “daily” however that no motion had been taken.

Drivers had urged the operator to implement a most velocity of 250kph (155mph) on broken strains till the state of the community rail was improved.

A supply briefed on the preliminary investigations into the catastrophe stated at this time that consultants had discovered a damaged joint on the rails. Technicians on web site recognized put on on the joint between sections of the rail, referred to as a fishplate, which they stated confirmed the fault had been there for a while, the supply stated.

They discovered that the defective joint created a spot between the rail sections that widened as trains continued to journey on the observe. The supply, who declined to be recognized because of the sensitivity of the problem, stated the technicians imagine the defective joint is vital to figuring out the exact explanation for the accident.

The deadly collision, close to Adamuz within the province of Cordoba, killed dozens of individuals and left greater than 120 injured, with 48 nonetheless in hospital and 12 in intensive care. It may very well be a month earlier than an investigation determines the trigger, transport minister Óscar Puente stated.

Jose Trigueros, president of the Association of Road Engineers, stated his preliminary evaluation of pictures and data launched by the authorities prompt “failure of the undercarriage of the back units” of the high-speed Freccia 1000 practice, operated by Iryo, which was travelling north from Malaga to Madrid when it derailed.

Most of the casualties are believed to have been on board a second practice, operated by Alvia, which is run by Spain’s public railway firm Renfe. That practice was heading south from Madrid to Huelva when it collided with the derailed Iryo practice and was pushed off the tracks into an embankment.

ADIF had reported issues with infrastructure at Adamuz on social media – starting from signalling failures to points with overhead energy strains – that brought about delays to high-speed trains between Madrid and Andalusia 10 occasions since 2022.

The Spanish authorities was criticised final 12 months for a collection of delays on the community, attributable to energy outages and the theft of copper cables from the strains. The community is susceptible to cable thefts, because it crosses massive swathes of empty countryside.

Mr Puente stated that the Iryo practice was lower than 4 years outdated and that the railway observe had been utterly renovated final May – earlier than the warning from the SEMAF union – with an funding of €700m (£607m). Iryo stated the practice was final inspected on 15 January.

The transport minister known as the accident “tremendously strange” and stated that had it not been for the oncoming practice, the derailment would have probably brought about no deaths.

Renfe chief Alvaro Fernández Heredia dominated out human error and stated that there was a 20-second interval between the primary derailment and its impression with the practice heading the opposite means, a time period too brief to activate the automated braking system.

“It must have been some kind of failure in the rolling stock or the infrastructure, and that will take time [to investigate],” he stated.

Officials stated the Alvia practice had apparently hit the derailed carriages or undercarriage particles of the Iryo. The 27-year-old driver of the Alvia practice died within the crash, the Renfe chief stated.

Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez on Monday promised a “thorough and absolutely transparent” investigation into the crash.

The nation’s high-speed railway community, with 3,622km of tracks, is the biggest in Europe and the second-biggest on the earth after China, in response to ADIF. Spain opened up its high-speed rail community to non-public competitors in 2020 in a bid to supply low-cost alternate options to Renfe’s AVE trains.

Iryo is a three way partnership between Italian state railway operator Ferrovie dello Stato, airline Air Nostrum and Spanish infrastructure funding fund Globalvia. It started working in November 2022, beginning with the Madrid-Barcelona route and increasing to different main cities.

The Iryo ETR1000 practice is manufactured by the partnership of Hitachi Rail-Bombardier in Europe for Ferrovie’s unit Trenitalia. Renfe’s Alvia trains are manufactured by native makers CAF and Talgo.