Spanish transport minister announces resignation after two deadly train crashes
What happened
Spanish Transport Minister Óscar Puente resigned on Tuesday after a high-speed train collision near Urda that killed at least 69 people.
He announced his decision in parliament and said he is also dropping out of the candidate lists for the 29 November elections.
The Renfe train rammed into a stationary Iryo train south of Madrid, during a failure of the automated safety system on the Madrid–Seville line, according to DW.
It was the second fatal crash in under a year; January's collision on the same line left 46 dead, the BBC reported.
The conservative People's Party and far-right Vox had demanded his resignation, and train unions were unhappy with him for appearing to blame one control-centre operator.
Hours earlier, Puente had presented new safety measures, including software alerts and a requirement for a second operator to confirm certain decisions.
“A transport minister in a country like Spain cannot remain in office after two accidents of this seriousness in less than a year”
BBC
Summary written by AI from 2 independent sources (DW, BBC) and checked automatically against them for copied text and numbers that are not in the sources. How we work
Open on the live globe →Who reported it
- 2026-11-03 20:32 UTCSky News · news.sky.com ↗
- 2026-11-03 20:41 UTCDW · dw.com ↗
- 2026-11-03 20:53 UTCLe Monde · lemonde.fr ↗
- 2026-11-03 21:43 UTCArab News via AFP · arabnews.com ↗
- 2026-11-03 21:46 UTCGuardian via AFP · theguardian.com ↗
- 2026-11-03 21:55 UTCSCMP via AFP · scmp.com ↗
- 2026-11-03 22:36 UTCNYT · nytimes.com ↗
- 2026-11-03 22:45 UTCBBC · bbc.co.uk ↗
- 2026-11-04 01:03 UTCThe Hindu · thehindu.com ↗
- 2026-11-04 01:05 UTCSeneweb · seneweb.com ↗
- 2026-11-04 05:34 UTCCopenhagen Post · cphpost.dk ↗
- 2026-11-04 07:18 UTCAl Jazeera · aljazeera.com ↗
- 2026-11-04 07:44 UTCMercoPress · en.mercopress.com ↗
- 2026-11-04 09:05 UTCCyprus Mail · cyprus-mail.com ↗
- 2026-11-04 11:55 UTCIraqi News via AFP · iraqinews.com ↗
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