Spain’s transport minister handed in his resignation on Tuesday after a train crash killed 69 people last week. It is one of the worst railway disasters in Europe this century. Óscar Puente revealed he was standing down during an address to parliament.
Puente also withdrew from the country’s upcoming general election. Last week’s crash and another disaster earlier this year have overshadowed campaigning for the 29 November ballot. Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is trailing in opinion polls.
Puente had previously ruled out resigning on several occasions. At the end of a lengthy hearing before lawmakers, he told parliament he was stepping down from his ministerial position and removing his name from the lists for the early legislative elections.
Hours earlier at a press conference, Puente stated that the government would work tirelessly to achieve and regain public trust in high-speed rail. The right-wing opposition and unions had criticised the minister for appearing to pin all the blame for the disaster on a single control centre operator.
The collision occurred when a train operated by state-owned company Renfe ploughed into the back of a stationary train belonging to private Spanish operator Iryo on Wednesday outside the village of Urda, about 80 miles south of Madrid.
An automatic safety system failure halted all trains on a 39-mile stretch of track, but a control centre nonetheless authorised the Renfe service to resume its journey. Work on clearing the wreckage south of Toledo has continued this week.
During his earlier press briefing, Puente announced the creation of software for control centres that would issue automatic alerts and make it easier to spot traffic anomalies. He said an artificial intelligence agent would oversee the system to minimise human error.
Under the new proposals, if a control centre operator took a decision while the automatic safety system was down, a second operator would have to confirm it. Train drivers’ union Semaf, which called strikes at Renfe for 10 and 12 November, denounced a worsening of working conditions and the use of degraded systems.
Addressing union demands, Puente said working conditions for control centre operators would be reformed, including their breaks and the monitoring of fatigue levels. He also announced a 30 million euro aid package for the families of the dead and the scores of injured people.
A previous collision in the southern region of Andalusia in January killed 46 people on the same key line connecting Madrid with Seville, which is Spain’s first high-speed route after opening in 1992.
