Spain's PM defends rail safety and urges opposition not to 'fuel fear' after Cordoba tragedy

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Pedro Sánchez says that it is normal for there to be daily incidents on a rail that, 'if laid in a straight line, would cover the distance between the North and the South Pole'

Paula De las Heras

Madrid

Wednesday, 11 February 2026, 15:45

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez spoke in the lower house on Wednesday for the first time since the tragic train crash near Adamuz and the accident in Gelida, which together claimed the lives of 47 people. In response to the uncertainty over the safety of the Spanish rail system, Sánchez urged the opposition "not to fuel fear". According to the Prime Minister, Spain's rail "is one of the best in the world".

Sánchez said that, in under a month, "many hoaxes have been spread", one of them that the government does not invest in maintenance, "only in transport subsidies". "This is a colossal lie. Between 2018 and 2025, investment in railway infrastructure has tripled, from 1.7 to nearly 5 billion euros," the PM said.

However, he did admit that the system "has significant shortcomings" and "there is work to be done". He discouraged labels that describe the state rail system as "decadent or unsafe". "It is not perfect, but it is safe," he said.

In his approximately 40-minute speech, Sánchez said that when analysing the situation, one should take into account that Spain has a network of 15,700 kilometres, the fifth longest in the EU. Of those, 4,500 correspond to high-speed lines, which places the country only behind China.

"If laid in a straight line, the tracks could cover the distance between the North and the South Pole. Daily incidents are bound to happen in such an extensive system. It is inevitable," he said, alluding not to train crashes like the one in Adamuz, but to "animals crossing, trees falling, train drivers falling ill, weather incidents".

According to Sánchez, these are the incidents that cause temporary speed reductions, suspensions for track revisions or specific detours to update the infrastructure. "All these are inconveniences but they are not anomalies, they are not dysfunctions. It is proof that the system detects, acts and corrects," he said.

Sánchez also stated that the government is doing "and will do" everything in its power to help investigators, to establish the cause of the accident in Cordoba and to "bring justice" if necessary. For the moment, the prime minister has declined to make assumptions or give any explanations that would precede the conclusions of the investigation.

As minister Óscar Puente had already done on several occasions, Sánchez outlined all rail inspections carried out since its "comprehensive renovation" ("which does not imply the replacement of all its elements") in 2025. He concluded that "it is likely" that one of the "lessons" to be learned from the Adamuz tragedy is that these protocols "are not infallible". "If this is the case, rest assured that the government will be the first to improve them, following expert guidance in order to prevent a such events in the future," PM Sánchez concluded.