Toledo train collision toll reaches at least 68 as Sánchez vows action on any negligence

Since the first confirmations of 10 deaths this morning, Oct. 28, the toll from the Renfe-Iryo collision near Urda in Toledo province has climbed to at least 68, the Castilla-La Mancha regional government said. Injury counts still vary: regional president Emiliano García-Page earlier put them at 80, the regional government's latest update says 68, and Transport Minister Óscar Puente cited 50.

Rescue crews are still searching the wreckage. Health Minister Mónica García said workers were focused on recovering survivors and bodies from the two most badly damaged cars.

What the transport minister says happened

Puente told reporters in Madrid that a computer communications failure at the control system near Urda automatically halted traffic. Six trains were stopped, he said. A decision to restart traffic was taken at 8:36 a.m., and a Renfe train was then allowed to proceed despite an active red signal and a stationary Iryo train ahead, in breach of protocol.

That train travelled about 25 kilometers before hitting the Iryo train at high speed. Puente called it "inexplicable" how that could have happened.

The government has not said who authorized the restart. Rail infrastructure manager Adif is investigating the sequence of events.

Renfe said in a statement that its train had been instructed to continue and crashed into the stationary Iryo train "for reasons we don't know." Iryo said its train was "struck from behind" and that the cause was "still unknown." A source told Reuters the Iryo train had stopped on Adif's orders because of the signalling fault.

Who was on board

The regional government said 397 passengers were on the Renfe train and 147 on the Iryo train, 544 in total. Both were heading from Madrid to Seville. The two rear carriages of the Iryo train derailed, according to Renfe.

Passenger Ignacio Relaño, who was on the Renfe train, told state broadcaster TVE the train had stopped momentarily, started again, and then crashed. "We all felt the train abruptly slowing down and then the impact," he said.

Rail service between Madrid, Ciudad Real and Andalusia is suspended.

Second disaster on the same line

In January, a derailment near Adamuz in Andalucía killed at least 45 people. Both crashes involved Renfe and Iryo trains and the Madrid-Andalusia line, the oldest on Spain's high-speed network.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, speaking at the crash site, said it is "unacceptable for a country like Spain to have two high-speed accidents in less than a year." He added: "If there has been any negligence, it will come to light. If there have been failures in the safety system, they will be addressed with the utmost firmness."

Sánchez faces a snap election on Nov. 29, which he called after widespread unrest over Spain's housing crisis. Santiago Abascal, leader of the Vox party, which is expected to make gains, blamed the government on X: "Tragedy again. Rage again over the neglect, the ruin, and the betrayal suffered by the Spanish people."

The government's response to that kind of charge after January was to point to spending. It says it has raised railway maintenance spending by 54% since taking power in 2018. Train travel in Spain grew 40% between 2019 and 2024, a period in which the network opened to private operators. In the first half of this year, 25 million passengers used high-speed trains.

Labor dispute set for Thursday

Spain's largest train drivers union has called a 24-hour work stoppage at Renfe for Thursday, Oct. 29, the day after the crash. The union said earlier this month: "Our goal is to change the system and make it safer." It also demanded "real and definitive technical solutions to the safety and reliability issues that have long plagued our rolling stock." A separate rolling six-day strike has been called for drivers at the high-speed operator Ouigo.

No source has linked the strike demands to the cause of today's collision. The investigation so far points to a signalling failure and a restart decision, not rolling stock.

What remains open

The core issue is procedural. A red signal and a stopped train sat ahead of a high-speed train, and someone cleared it to move. Puente has called the restart erroneous and a protocol breach. Renfe says it was instructed to continue. Which party issued that instruction, and why it was not caught, is the question Adif's investigation has to answer before the Nov. 29 vote.