The Italians designed it but won't run it at more than 300km/h in Italy citing local infrastructure concerns. I guess that leaves other countries to find the edge cases. I'll be interested to find out how fast it was going during the crash.
If you’re interested in this kind of thing, look up plainly difficult on youtube. He has more videos on train crashes than I’ve seen, and I’m embarrassed how many I’ve seen. Here’s one to get you started: https://youtu.be/VV2rIHEp5AM?si=sSBT9s49PqbLTGbt
There are a lot of safety lessons embedded in these videos, which is why I like them. I also did a double take when I heard "semaphore"; its history goes back far longer than the ~century of software engineering. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semaphore
For many years the Spanish state-owned company RENFE had a monopoly on Spain's huge high speed rail network. However their high prices, inconvenient schedules and poor customer service were often criticized, and so when, to the annoyance of RENFE and many spanish politicians, additional foreign operators entered the market on the key Madrid - Barcelona route, ridership doubled whilst ticket prices halved.
So I would standby for this tragedy to be used for political purposes to try and get foreign operators banned from Spanish tracks, regardless of the facts of the matter.
For a bit of context according to the OECD 2023 Spain had ~1800 on the road during the previous year, so that's about 5/day. There are more deaths on the road in Spain in a couple of weeks than this tragic accident. Either way it's too many deaths obviously but I want to highlight what a freak event this is compared to a more popular mode of transportation.
Taking the commuter train to and from Dublin, sometimes another train on the other direction passes and it's a bit unnerving. I cannot imagine such a collision between two high speed trains :(
Look for train collision in Greece (1), the only in a developed country. Extensive research has been done, from a simple switch malfunction to plasma scale temperatures.
1. The last 3 cars from the Iryo train (Frecciarossa 1000) derailed for unknown reasons. It's a straight line, so this is extremely rare.
2. The Renfe train (Alvia) didn't have time to break and hit the derailed trains from Iryo, the two first cars derail as a consequence of the impact.
3. The Iryo train(Frecciarossa 1000), that caused the accident, was manufactured in 2022 and it passed a technical inspection just 4 days ago.
4. The renovation of this specific part of the infrastructure finished on May 2025, so it's practically new.
Spanish high speed trains are one of the best in the world and it had plenty investment from governments of different sign over the years. This has nothing to do with the regional network (Cercanias) and the local struggles in certain regions.
IMHO, this is a horribly timed accidental technical issue.
This is tragic, but I hope it doesn't put a damper on Spanish high-speed train development. They've really done a remarkable job building out their network in a cost-effective manner.
Yes. The Frecciarossa 1000 (ETR 1000) is an EMU, and the trainset’s coaches/cars are equipped with braking equipment as part of the integrated braking system—so it’s not “only the power cars” doing the braking.
So my first gut instinct is that one wagons breaks malfunctioned and suddenly applied breaking power since it was the last two wagons that went off.
From the aerial imagery it looks like the accident sequence started at the track switch [1]. The RENFE is rested south of it and the Iryo is north. Quite similar to the 1998 Eschede ICE accident which started with a broken wheel rim and finally derailed at a track switch.
I wonder how anybody knows that it was the Iryo train that caused the accident.
The most important context is this image[1] from the Guardia Civil. Using Google Maps, and using as context the tree, post and yellow connection box in the image, we can place its location at 180m before the accident in the tracks of the Iryo train. The image appears to show a track welding failure. This would match the reports of some passengers[2] that reported that the "train started shaking violently" before the accident.
Photo at 38.00771000519087, -4.565435982666953
Accident at 38.009292813090475, -4.564960554581273
What is tragic is that the high tech approach here ("super-fast trains") does not put security at the forefront. This should have been the number #1 criterium from the get go, already during the planning stage. The usual reason this is not done is because of cutting down on costs, but just simple things such as: how can it be possible that another train comes by at the same time and crashes? This would not have prevented the one train going off, but you have to wonder how that is even possible design-wise to catch two trains. And even trains going off, should not be possible - this can most assuredly be detected as it happens, so what counter-measures are available to minimize damage and maximize safety?
As an American with no good rails, I've always been curious: what stops a crazy person from throwing a boulder onto the high speed tracks, or a raccoon getting on it, or other such derailment attempts? Is there high security electric fencing all around the track the whole route or something like that?
Animals on tracks remain a problem, although they do not pose risk to human life (just damages to the trains). One of the attempts to protect animals include acoustic deterrents, here's a Polish one as an example [1] but they are manufactured around the world. The Polish one plays sounds of predators, dying creatures, hunting dogs, etc to scare away forest animals (search for "UOZ-1" on youtube if you want to hear the sounds). Such devices significantly lower the number of collisions but unfortunately they are not 100% effective.
After the TV videos, it seems that a chunk of 80cm or one meter of the railway was missing, or broke by the train passing.
Just to add context:
In 2025 August, the Spanish government blocked the attempt from Ganz MaVag Europe to buy Talgo, the main Spanish train maker. Ganz Magyar Vagon is an Hungarian company linked with Oil oligarchs close to the Victor Orban government. The government alleged National Security reasons when the National Intelligence Center started to suspect that the operation was really funded by a Russian Company, lending money to the Hungarians, via Corvinus International Investment Ltd.
So it seems that Moscow could be trying to gain access to the Spanish train technology for some reason.
Also, this crash happened in Andalucia. On 8 January 2026 the high velocity trains in Andalucia were delayed some hours by somebody stealing small amounts of copper cable from several vital parts of the system. It was ruled as common thievery, and it was not the first time. Similar events on may 2025:
Stealing copper from the Spanish railway is like an Olympic sport lately. It seems strangely common on the previous hours to a big holiday, election or major event.
The problem is causing serious economic damage and lots of troubles to the users of the Spanish Commuter rail system "Cercanias" and now escalated also to the high speed railway. The troubles with Cercanias can be often attributed to poor maintenance, but sometimes include also somebody placing rocks and trunks directly on the railway with the mere purpose to create chaos.
EU is on an hybrid war with Russia, and that there are many documented boycotts against relevant European infrastructure, like the regular cut of submarine cables. At this moment is to soon to discard anything.
A third train in the Cercanias railway has crashed today and derailed after finding rocks laid in the railway and losing a wheel Axle on a rock.
And of course, as in the last thousand times, it was on a very particular northern part of Spain that has lots and lots of similar sabotages in the last years. No victims this time.
One time is maybe accident, two times in two days... nope. We are obviously under attack. All high speed trains in Spain were ordered to reduce the speed to a half temporarily. If seems that somebody really, really, don't wants the Spanish president going to the Davos Forum.
A new accident today in Catalonia, three train crashes in three days of the Davos Forum with four trains involved.
The fourth train crashed against obstacles in the railway. One machinist killed and all commuter trains in the region halted until the railway is reviewed. High-speed velocity has been restored to normal values. Machinists went on strike and the narrative of poor maintenance is all around the place on internet.
The chance of this happening just by random is zero. We didn't have a train crash in Spain in years and now we have three at the same time.
37 comments
[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 55.0 ms ] threadThe Italians designed it but won't run it at more than 300km/h in Italy citing local infrastructure concerns. I guess that leaves other countries to find the edge cases. I'll be interested to find out how fast it was going during the crash.
There are a lot of safety lessons embedded in these videos, which is why I like them. I also did a double take when I heard "semaphore"; its history goes back far longer than the ~century of software engineering. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semaphore
So I would standby for this tragedy to be used for political purposes to try and get foreign operators banned from Spanish tracks, regardless of the facts of the matter.
For a bit of context according to the OECD 2023 Spain had ~1800 on the road during the previous year, so that's about 5/day. There are more deaths on the road in Spain in a couple of weeks than this tragic accident. Either way it's too many deaths obviously but I want to highlight what a freak event this is compared to a more popular mode of transportation.
Edit : Motivation behind that clarification https://ourworldindata.org/does-the-news-reflect-what-we-die... read some months ago but that stuck with me.
I'm in Spain currently. Very sad news.
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempi_train_crash
1. The last 3 cars from the Iryo train (Frecciarossa 1000) derailed for unknown reasons. It's a straight line, so this is extremely rare.
2. The Renfe train (Alvia) didn't have time to break and hit the derailed trains from Iryo, the two first cars derail as a consequence of the impact.
3. The Iryo train(Frecciarossa 1000), that caused the accident, was manufactured in 2022 and it passed a technical inspection just 4 days ago.
4. The renovation of this specific part of the infrastructure finished on May 2025, so it's practically new.
Spanish high speed trains are one of the best in the world and it had plenty investment from governments of different sign over the years. This has nothing to do with the regional network (Cercanias) and the local struggles in certain regions.
IMHO, this is a horribly timed accidental technical issue.
https://english.elpais.com/spain/2026-01-19/at-least-39-dead...
https://archive.ph/Ase0v
looks like it's a rail welding failure.
So my first gut instinct is that one wagons breaks malfunctioned and suddenly applied breaking power since it was the last two wagons that went off.
I wonder how anybody knows that it was the Iryo train that caused the accident.
[1] https://maps.app.goo.gl/Cek9DgChguXJxVpd6
Photo at 38.00771000519087, -4.565435982666953
Accident at 38.009292813090475, -4.564960554581273
[1] https://img2.rtve.es/im/16899875/?w=900
[2] https://x.com/eleanorinthesky/status/2012961856520917401?s=2...
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0j68iepI88
[1]: https://euroweeklynews.com/2026/01/19/focus-of-guardia-civil...
Just to add context:
In 2025 August, the Spanish government blocked the attempt from Ganz MaVag Europe to buy Talgo, the main Spanish train maker. Ganz Magyar Vagon is an Hungarian company linked with Oil oligarchs close to the Victor Orban government. The government alleged National Security reasons when the National Intelligence Center started to suspect that the operation was really funded by a Russian Company, lending money to the Hungarians, via Corvinus International Investment Ltd.
https://www.ft.com/content/e3074c51-7de1-4ed4-aafd-e3c20d9be...
So it seems that Moscow could be trying to gain access to the Spanish train technology for some reason.
Also, this crash happened in Andalucia. On 8 January 2026 the high velocity trains in Andalucia were delayed some hours by somebody stealing small amounts of copper cable from several vital parts of the system. It was ruled as common thievery, and it was not the first time. Similar events on may 2025:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm24l14l4zmo
Stealing copper from the Spanish railway is like an Olympic sport lately. It seems strangely common on the previous hours to a big holiday, election or major event.
The problem is causing serious economic damage and lots of troubles to the users of the Spanish Commuter rail system "Cercanias" and now escalated also to the high speed railway. The troubles with Cercanias can be often attributed to poor maintenance, but sometimes include also somebody placing rocks and trunks directly on the railway with the mere purpose to create chaos.
EU is on an hybrid war with Russia, and that there are many documented boycotts against relevant European infrastructure, like the regular cut of submarine cables. At this moment is to soon to discard anything.
And of course, as in the last thousand times, it was on a very particular northern part of Spain that has lots and lots of similar sabotages in the last years. No victims this time.
One time is maybe accident, two times in two days... nope. We are obviously under attack. All high speed trains in Spain were ordered to reduce the speed to a half temporarily. If seems that somebody really, really, don't wants the Spanish president going to the Davos Forum.
The fourth train crashed against obstacles in the railway. One machinist killed and all commuter trains in the region halted until the railway is reviewed. High-speed velocity has been restored to normal values. Machinists went on strike and the narrative of poor maintenance is all around the place on internet.
The chance of this happening just by random is zero. We didn't have a train crash in Spain in years and now we have three at the same time.