Spain transport minister Puente refuses to resign over Urda train crash

Spanish Transport Minister Óscar Puente said on Friday, October 30, that he will not resign over Wednesday's high-speed rail collision near Urda, in Toledo province, which killed at least 69 people. "My way of taking responsibility, as you well know, is to face up," he told a news conference at his ministry, according to Europa Press. He said he had "nothing to hide" and that his duty was "to resolve the problem," the BBC reported.bbc.com+1

The crash happened when a state-run Renfe high-speed train ran into the back of a stationary Iryo train. It was Spain's second deadly high-speed accident in less than a year. In January, a collision on the same Madrid-Seville route killed 46 people near Adamuz.bbc.com

Offer to step aside

After the press conference, Puente told reporters that he had put his post at Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's disposal after the crash. Sánchez turned him down, saying a resignation would be "unjust," Europa Press reported, in line with what ABC had published. "The easy thing for me would be to leave, but that neither fits my character nor is it what the prime minister has asked me to do," Puente said.abc.es+2

Puente said the evidence so far points to a failure at the control centre run by Adif, the state rail infrastructure manager. He also said he would not "use any worker as a shield" or let demands for accountability become a rush to find someone to blame. He admitted that public trust in the railways was "broken". He also disclosed that the LZB signalling system on the Madrid-Seville line had failed 170 times this year, a number he called "within normal limits". Earlier that day, Sánchez had used the same word, saying trust in high-speed rail was "broken".europapress.es+3

Mounting calls to quit

The conservative People's Party has joined the CSIF union in calling for Puente to resign. The CCOO union has made the same demand. Ada Colau, the Frente Amplio candidate for prime minister, asked on Friday for him to go "as soon as possible." She said that although Puente had no direct role in the crash, he bears "political responsibility".canalsur.es+2

A preliminary investigation found that the Renfe train was travelling at between 160 and 200 km/h when it hit the other train. Leaked audio suggests a controller cleared it to move even though another train had stalled about 25 km ahead.bbc.com

Congress appearance Tuesday

Puente asked to appear before the Congress's standing committee, the Diputación Permanente. The session is scheduled for Tuesday, November 3, at 5 p.m., with the crash as its only agenda item. "If the investigation shows there is human error we will act in consequence of that," Puente said.elespanol.com+1