Spanish train crash yet another blow to Sánchez’ government ahead of elections in November

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The deadly train crash in Spain’s Toledo province has sparked fresh criticism of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s government and raised questions about the country’s investment in public infrastructure – just weeks before national elections in November.

Wednesday’s crash marks the third deadly train disaster in Spain this year, thrusting worries about railway maintenance, investment and staffing levels into the spotlight.

The tragedy deals a fresh blow to Sánchez’ left-wing government, which has already faced corruption scandals, protests over housing affordability and the Ceuta mass migrant crossing earlier this year.

Sánchez took a gamble by calling a snap election for November 29, and although his Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) is polling behind the conservative People’s Party (PP), it had been gaining ground in recent weeks. But this latest catastrophe could clip the wings of any comeback.

“On top of a crisis of confidence in Sánchez, you also have a crisis of confidence in the railway institution,” said analyst Grégoire Roos, the director of the Europe program at Chatham House. He said while the train disaster is unlikely to be the tipping point of an election in which Sánchez is already polling behind, it could fuel right-wing opposition parties.

“It’s undeniable that this will further hinder public confidence,” Roos told CNN. “An environment of such distrust can only play in favor of (far-right party) Vox, and to some extent to the (conservative) Partido Popular.”

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Spain’s Transportation Minister Óscar Puente said the collision, which killed at least 69 people and injured scores more, was caused by both computer system failure and apparent human error. That sparked an immediate backlash from unions, which stressed the need for a full investigation, and that one train controller should not be used as a scapegoat for wider systemic problems.

Protesters and far right groups gathered on Wednesday night in the Spanish capital Madrid to demand Puente’s resignation and a change in government. Videos from the demonstrations showed some protesters holding signs saying “corruption kills” and “leave!” next to pictures of the Spanish prime minister.

Sánchez has responded to the crash by saying that his government is working to “clarify every last detail of this tragedy and of course to reinforce security so that this does not happen again.”

From the scene of the crash in the immediate aftermath on Wednesday, he expressed his “full solidarity” with victims’ families and said that “if there has been negligence, it will come to light. And if there have been failures in the safety system, they will be addressed with the utmost firmness.”

Sánchez added that “it’s clear that we have suffered two terrible tragedies involving high-speed rail in the same year,” acknowledging the other major crash in January in Córdoba province, which killed more than 40 people on the same line.

“We will rebuild trust in our high-speed system,” Sánchez said.

Transportation Minister Puente publicly stated that Wednesday’s crash was the result of a computer system failure that led to an issue with the LZB train management safety system along a 40-mile stretch of track, causing all trains in the area to be stopped automatically.

At that point, the state-owned company that manages Spain’s railways, ADIF, took manual command of the system and a decision was made to allow a high-speed train to continue despite a red light, Puente said, which ultimately resulted in its collision with a stationary train.

Unions immediately balked at that explanation, though, and demanded that “all the circumstances that led to this tragedy are investigated.”

“We do not accept that the actions of one single worker are placed under the microscope while the managerial decision and corporate policies are relegated to the background,” the railway workers’ union UGT said, adding that issues of staffing shortages, excessive workloads, poor organization and outdated equipment that “should equally be scrutinized.”

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What caused the deadly train crash in Spain? What we know so far

Spain’s train drivers held a pre-planned nationwide strike Thursday to call for stronger safety measures. The train drivers’ union SEMAF criticized how audio from the control center at Madrid’s Atocha station had been leaked to Spanish media in the wake of the crash, with spokesperson Teo Moreno telling CNN the recordings only gave “half the picture.”

“Leaking those audios was regrettable, and it’s the same people who failed to do the right investment who are leaking the audios to scapegoat one single worker,” he said.

Another union representing civil servants, CSIF, said in a statement that it demands the government “respect the investigation and the presumption of innocence for the head of traffic at ADIF.” The trade union accused Puente of pointing the finger at “hardworking person” instead of “assuming his responsibilities.”

The civil servants’ union said it had also warned in September of “excess hours” for the working days of ADIF staff.

CNN has reached out to the Spanish transport ministry and ADIF for comment.

Spain’s rail traffic controllers’ union, SCF, is also urging the government to invest more in the railway safety system and accelerate its replacement with more modern technology.

Spain’s transportation ministry is working to upgrade the current LZB safety system , which was introduced in 1992 and has already been phased out in other parts of the country. The ministry has previously announced hundreds of millions of euros of investments into modernizing the high-speed rail network, including this particular section running from Madrid to Seville.

Like the other unions, SCF has also argued there are pervasive issues with long working hours and inadequate staffing at train station control centers.

“The rail operator, ADIF, has not made plans for a generational change in the workforce, so you have a generation of old controllers who are retiring, and they have not been replaced,” union spokeswoman Raquel Ayllón told CNN in the aftermath of the disaster.

“In some instances, our controllers cannot take toilet breaks because there’s nobody on staff to take over from them,” Ayllón said. “It’s clear that if you want to have three trains departing from the station every minute, a single person cannot handle that level of traffic.”

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The union spokeswoman noted that after the previous train disaster in Córdoba province, the rail operator opened a new training center, but those new recruits won’t join the workforce until next year. She also highlighted issues with inadequate training and experience among staff.

“Years ago, in order to work in a busy station like Atocha – Madrid’s busiest – you’d have to have ten years’ experience at least. Now, they just bring people in from the first year,” Ayllón said.

Spain has rapidly expanded its rail network over the last decade. According to a European Union report based on the most recent statistics from 2024, Spain has the largest high-speed rail network in the EU. Between 2018 and 2022, that network grew by nearly 1,000 km (570 miles).

However, the EU report notes that most funds for the rail infrastructure were allocated to new lines, “whereas upgrades and renewals played a minor role.”

Spanish journalist and political analyst Ramón González Férriz said the country invested a lot of money into infrastructure before the 2008 financial crisis – and the railways became both a sign of modernization and a point of pride for Spaniards.

But the large railway system, along with other infrastructure like an extensive network of regional airports, became very expensive to maintain for successive governments, he told CNN.

“This government increased the spending on pensions – that is the big elephant in the room,” González Férriz said, also noting rises in spending due to the pandemic and inflation pressures. “You can think it’s okay, or it isn’t – but the fact is that we began spending a lot of money on a lot of things that were not the infrastructure.”

In the years since, public sentiment about the country’s infrastructure and public services has tanked. He said the successive train disasters and lack of confidence in public services are unlikely to push left-wing voters to switch to the right, but it could increase the number of people who decide to stay home on election day.

“The government was making a campaign based on optimism and hope, and that Spain is growing when most of Europe is not growing… and the president is young and handsome and likes pop music… But now it’s impossible,” González Férriz added.

CNN’s Pau Mosquera, Duarte Mendonca, Billy Stockwell, Caitlin Danaher and Sophie Tanno contributed to this report.

弗洛伦西亚·谭君/盖蒂图片社

西班牙托莱多省发生的致命火车事故再次引发了对西班牙首相佩德罗·桑切斯政府的批评，并引发了人们对该国公共基础设施投资的质疑——而此时距离11月的全国大选仅剩几周时间。

周三发生的这起事故是西班牙今年发生的第三起致命火车事故，使人们对铁路维护、投资和人员配备水平的担忧成为关注焦点。

这场悲剧给桑切斯的左翼政府带来了新的打击，该政府此前已经面临腐败丑闻、住房负担能力抗议以及今年早些时候的休达大规模移民越境事件。

桑切斯冒险提前举行大选，定于11月29日举行。尽管他的工人社会党（PSOE）目前民调落后于保守派人民党（PP），但近几周来支持率有所上升。然而，这场最新的灾难可能会扼杀其任何反扑的势头。

“除了民众对桑切斯的信任危机之外，铁路机构也面临着信任危机，”查塔姆研究所欧洲项目主任、分析师格雷戈尔·罗斯表示。他指出，虽然这起火车事故不太可能成为桑切斯民调落后的选举结果的转折点，但它可能会助长右翼反对党的势力。

罗斯告诉CNN：“毫无疑问，这将进一步损害公众信心。这种不信任的氛围只会对（极右翼政党）Vox有利，并在某种程度上对（保守派）人民党有利。”

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西班牙交通部长奥斯卡·普恩特表示，造成至少69人死亡、数十人受伤的这起事故是由计算机系统故障和人为失误共同导致的。此言一出，立即引发工会强烈反对，他们强调必须进行全面调查，不应将一名列车调度员当作替罪羊，掩盖更广泛的系统性问题。

周三晚间，抗议者和极右翼团体聚集在西班牙首都马德里，要求普恩特辞职并更换政府。示威视频显示，一些抗议者在西班牙首相的照片旁举着写有“腐败害死人”和“下台！”的标语。

桑切斯就此次坠机事件回应称，他的政府正在努力“查明这场悲剧的每一个细节，当然还要加强安全措施，以防止此类事件再次发生”。

周三事故发生后，他立即在事故现场表达了对遇难者家属的“充分慰问”，并表示“如果存在疏忽，真相必将水落石出。如果安全系统存在缺陷，必将以最坚决的态度予以解决。”

桑切斯补充说，“很明显，我们在同一年遭受了两起与高铁有关的可怕悲剧”，他承认今年1月在科尔多瓦省发生的另一起重大事故，该事故造成同一条线路上的40多人死亡。

桑切斯说：“我们将重建公众对高速铁路系统的信任。”

交通部长普恩特公开表示，周三发生的事故是由于计算机系统故障导致 LZB 列车管理安全系统在 40 英里长的铁轨上出现问题，造成该地区所有列车自动停止运行。

普恩特说，当时，管理西班牙铁路的国有企业 ADIF 接管了系统的人工控制权，并决定允许一列高速列车在红灯亮起的情况下继续行驶，最终导致该列车与一列停靠的列车相撞。

然而，工会立即对这种解释表示反对，并要求“调查导致这场悲剧的所有情况”。

铁路工人联合会 UGT 表示：“我们不能接受将单个工人的行为置于显微镜下，而将管理决策和公司政策置于次要地位的做法。”该联合会还补充说，人员短缺、工作量过大、组织不善和设备过时等问题“也应该受到同样的审查”。

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西班牙致命火车事故的起因是什么？我们目前了解的情况

西班牙火车司机周四举行了事先计划好的全国性罢工，呼吁加强安全措施。火车司机工会SEMAF批评马德里阿托查火车站控制中心的录音在事故发生后被泄露给西班牙媒体，其发言人特奥·莫雷诺告诉CNN，这些录音只展现了“部分真相”。

他说：“泄露这些录音令人遗憾，正是那些投资失败的人，为了把一个员工当作替罪羊而泄露了这些录音。”

另一个代表公务员的工会CSIF在一份声明中表示，他们要求政府“尊重调查，并尊重ADIF交通主管的无罪推定”。该工会指责普恩特将责任推卸给“勤奋的人”，而不是“承担起自己的责任”。

公务员工会表示，他们曾在9月份警告过ADIF员工工作日“工时过长”的问题。

CNN已联系西班牙交通部和ADIF寻求置评。

西班牙铁路交通管制员工会 SCF 也敦促政府加大对铁路安全系统的投资，并加快用更现代化的技术替换现有系统。

西班牙交通部正致力于升级现行的LZB安全系统。该系统于1992年启用，目前已在西班牙其他地区逐步淘汰。此前，交通部已宣布投资数亿欧元用于高速铁路网络现代化改造，其中包括马德里至塞维利亚段。

与其他工会一样，SCF 也认为火车站控制中心普遍存在工时过长和人员配备不足的问题。

“铁路运营商ADIF没有制定员工队伍的代际更替计划，所以现在有一代老调度员退休了，但他们还没有被新人取代，”工会发言人拉奎尔·阿永在灾难发生后告诉CNN。

“在某些情况下，我们的调度员甚至无法去上厕所，因为没有其他工作人员可以接替他们的工作，”阿永说。“很明显，如果想要每分钟有三列火车从车站出发，一个人根本无法应对如此大的交通流量。”

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工会发言人指出，科尔多瓦省上次火车事故发生后，铁路运营商开设了一个新的培训中心，但这些新学员要到明年才能上岗。她还强调了员工培训和经验不足的问题。

“几年前，要想在像马德里最繁忙的阿托查火车站这样繁忙的车站工作，你至少需要十年的工作经验。现在，他们直接从第一年就开始招人了，”阿永说道。

过去十年，西班牙的铁路网络迅速扩张。根据欧盟基于2024年最新统计数据发布的报告，西班牙拥有欧盟最大的高速铁路网络。2018年至2022年间，该网络增长了近1000公里（570英里）。

然而，欧盟的报告指出，铁路基础设施的大部分资金都分配给了新线路，“而升级和更新只发挥了很小的作用”。

西班牙记者兼政治分析家拉蒙·冈萨雷斯·费里斯表示，在 2008 年金融危机之前，西班牙在基础设施方面投入了大量资金——铁路既是现代化的标志，也是西班牙人的骄傲。

但他告诉 CNN，庞大的铁路系统以及其他基础设施，如广泛的区域机场网络，对于历届政府来说，维护起来都非常昂贵。

“本届政府增加了养老金支出——这才是真正的问题所在，”冈萨雷斯·费里斯说道，他还指出，疫情和通胀压力也导致了支出增加。“你可以觉得这没问题，也可以不这么认为——但事实是，我们开始在很多与基础设施无关的事情上投入大量资金。”

此后几年，公众对国家基础设施和公共服务的满意度急剧下降。他表示，接连发生的火车事故以及公众对公共服务的不信任不太可能促使左翼选民转而支持右翼，但可能会导致更多人在选举日选择待在家中。

“政府开展了一场以乐观和希望为基础的竞选活动，宣称西班牙在欧洲大部分地区没有增长的情况下仍在增长……而且总统年轻英俊，喜欢流行音乐……但现在这一切都不可能了，”冈萨雷斯·费里斯补充道。

CNN 的 Pau Mosquera、Duarte Mendonca、Billy Stockwell、Caitlin Danaher 和 Sophie Tanno 对本报道亦有贡献。