Jorge Zapata/EPA
Overhead line over the damaged wagons of one of the trains involved in the collision between two high-speed trains that occurred on January 18, 2026, in Adamuz, Córdoba, Spain.
Preliminary report released this Friday. Breakage in train line rails “is a recurring problem” across Europe, warns Spain’s Transport Minister.
The Spanish Transport Minister said this Friday that all inspections were respected on the line in Córdoba, and that cracks in the rails are common, but there was “very bad luck” in this case.
The break in train line rails “is a recurring problem” across Europeas evidenced by the approximately 3,000 notices and reports that the European Union Railway Agency (ERA) receives annually, said minister Óscar Puente, at a press conference in Madrid.
The minister spoke hours after the announcement of the preliminary report of the independent commission investigating Sunday’s accident, which killed 45 people.
According to the document, “the hypothesis can be raised” that a “rail fracture” was responsible for the derailment of the Iryo high-speed train, which later collided with another high-speed train.
According to the same document, investigators found marks on the wheels of the Iryo train, the first to derail, consistent with a deformation in a rail. On the other hand, marks with “a compatible geometric pattern” were also identified on the wheels of train carriages that had circulated in the same area before this accident.
The minister stated that all inspections were respected on the line where the accident occurred and that there was even more surveillance and tests than the minimum required.
“It was not maintenance, nor obsolescence [antiguidade] nor the lack of controls that led to the accident”he stated.
Óscar Puente reinforced that cracks and ruptures in train line rails do not occur due to a lack of safety and control systems, but sometimes “there can be failures”.
“Perhaps the conclusion, when this is over, will be that it is necessary to carry out other types of controls”, he stated.
Disruptions are “a recurring problem with railway networks” and in the vast majority of cases “these events occur without consequences”, but in the case of Adamuz, “there was a lot of bad luck” and the consequences were “extremely serious”, he added.
The minister was referring to the fact that a high-speed train passed just 20 seconds later at the place where the first one had derailed, colliding with three carriages that invaded the opposite direction. According to the authorities’ first conclusions, it was this shock that caused the tragedy, which resulted in 45 dead and around 150 injured.
Óscar Puente also reiterated that four incidents reported in the last four months along this line were not related to infrastructure.
Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, asked the national parliament to go to a plenary session to explain to deputies about the situation of the country’s railway network, according to sources at Moncloa, the seat of the Government. There is no date yet for this session.
“As for the causes of the rail break, no hypothesis can be ruled out”, according to the CIAF.
