Spain trade union demands transport minister's resignation after train crash kills 68

Spain's trade union CSIF has demanded the resignation of Transport Minister Oscar Puente following a train collision that killed 68 people, calling for an urgent, rigorous and transparent investigation into the country's second railway disaster in less than a year.

In a statement on social media platform X, CSIF urged the government to respect the investigation and the presumption of innocence of the official responsible for traffic operations at rail infrastructure manager Adif.

The union accused Puente of using a railway employee as a “scapegoat” instead of taking responsibility, and said it had warned in September about excessive working hours in Adif's schedules.


Spain's Transport Minister Oscar Puente declined to answer whether he would resign following the deadly train collision, Reuters reported.

The collision occurred on Wednesday in the central region of Castilla-La Mancha, when a train operated by state-owned Renfe struck the rear of a stationary train belonging to private operator Iryo. The accident also injured scores of people and prompted Spain to begin three days of national mourning on Thursday.

The disaster has renewed scrutiny of rail safety and infrastructure maintenance.

Transport Minister Puente said an automatic control system had failed along 69 kilometres of track, bringing trains to a halt, but the control centre later resumed traffic in circumstances he described as “inexplicable”.

The Renfe train travelled about 25 kilometres before hitting the stationary Iryo service.

CSIF called for greater investment in railway infrastructure, maintenance, network upgrades and safety to prevent further accidents.

Separately, an investigation into a separate train collision in southern Spain in January, which killed 46 people, is still ongoing.