MADRID (The Thursday Times) — Spain’s Transport Minister Óscar Puente resigned on Tuesday, six days after a high-speed train collision near Urda killed at least 69 people, and less than a week after he had said he would stay.
He announced the decision in Congress, at the end of more than four hours of questions on the crash. “A transport minister in a country like Spain cannot remain in office after two accidents of this seriousness in less than a year,” he said. “However different they may be, and whether or not he has direct responsibility for them, it is a matter of political dignity, consistency and empathy with the victims.”
Puente also gave up his place as the Socialist Party’s lead candidate for Valladolid in the general election on November 29, with under four weeks to go. He said he had made up his mind immediately after the crash, but stayed on to deal with its consequences.
The pressure had come from all sides. The opposition People’s Party and Vox demanded he go, and so did Sumar, ERC and the PNV, which support the government.
On October 28 a Renfe train crashed into the back of a stationary Iryo train south of Madrid. Leaked recordings appear to show that a control centre cleared the Renfe train to carry on even though the other train had stopped on the track about 25km ahead. Unions at the infrastructure operator Adif say it is unfair to blame human error and that the real issue is the failure of the safety system.
It was the second such disaster this year, after a collision near Adamuz in January killed 46 people, bringing the toll from the two crashes to 115.
Before resigning, Puente set out new safety measures. They include fewer services on the Madrid–Seville line until a safety review is complete and a new European signalling system is installed, two controllers to validate instructions when signals fail, and a 40km/h limit when drivers must rely on what they can see ahead. Sánchez has said authorities will “get to the bottom of every last detail of this tragedy”.
