Iryo has defended the reliability of its trains following the deadly collision at Urda, Toledo, and rejected doubts about the ability of its units to operate safely on the Madrid-Seville line.
The operator said its trains use the same equipment as other modern trains running on Spain’s railway network, apart from Renfe’s older S100 series. According to Iryo, its units are equipped with the ERTMS safety system, while LZB and ASFA operate as integrated subsystems. This configuration allows automatic transitions between ETCS, LZB and ASFA, the company said.
The Iryo train involved in the accident, service 6076, left Madrid’s Puerta de Atocha at 7:54 a.m. on Wednesday bound for Seville. It stopped at kilometre 118, near Urda station, after the LZB signalling system failed at 8:30 a.m. The driver reported the situation to Adif’s control centre at 8:41 and 8:48 and said the onboard LZB system could not be restarted.
According to the account provided, an Adif operator instructed the train to resume its journey when possible and travel at normal speed. A Renfe AVE was approaching the same section of track and had also been authorised to run at normal speed, with a maximum of 200 kilometres per hour because LZB was unavailable. The collision occurred at 8:53 a.m., when the Renfe train struck the Iryo unit from behind.
Transport Minister Óscar Puente said the Renfe train travelled 25 kilometres “inexplicably” while occupying the same track section as the Iryo train, without receiving an order to brake.
Iryo said on Monday that it has increased investment in the maintenance of its fleet by 10% since beginning operations. The company’s chief executive, Fabrizio Favara, had previously described the time required to restart LZB on its trains as excessive during an appearance before the Senate on October 5.
People close to the operator said restarting the onboard safety system normally takes between three and four minutes. After a second unsuccessful attempt to resume movement at Urda, Iryo’s procedures required the driver to contact the company’s maintenance team. The driver made that call while continuing to communicate with Adif’s control centre.
The collision took place while those exchanges were under way in the Iryo cab. Adif technicians had also been trying to restore the LZB system at Urda since 8:35 a.m., but were unsuccessful before the crash.
At a press conference on Friday, Puente ruled out the stationary Iryo train as the cause of the accident. He nevertheless suggested that Iryo may have lacked an incentive to invest in improving its connection with the line’s LZB system because that technology is due to be withdrawn. Work on installing the newer ERTMS system has been under way since 2021, and it is scheduled to begin supervising traffic on the line to Andalusia in early 2027.
Sources: El País Portada.