68 Dead as Spain's Second High-Speed Crash Exposes €1.5bn Foreign Rail Spend
October 29, 2026 · Frisian News
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Sixty-eight people died on October 28 when two high-speed trains collided in Toledo province, Spain's second mass-casualty rail crash in ten months. The same government has committed over €1.5 billion in subsidised credit to upgrade railways in Morocco, Egypt and Uzbekistan since 2018.
Sixty-eight people died on October 28 when a Renfe AVE service struck a stationary Iryo train between Los Yébenes and Urda in Toledo province, according to Castilla-La Mancha regional president Emiliano García-Page. Eighty people were injured, fifteen seriously. Reuters reported it as the deadliest train accident in Europe since the 2013 Santiago de Compostela derailment killed 80.
It was the second mass-casualty crash on the Madrid-Seville high-speed line in ten months. On January 18, 46 people died at Adamuz in Córdoba province. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called it "unacceptable" for Spain to suffer two high-speed rail accidents in the same year. What he did not address was where the money went instead.
Since 2018, the Spanish government led by Sánchez has committed more than €1.5 billion in cut-price public credit to modernise railway and metro infrastructure in Morocco, Egypt and Uzbekistan, according to ministerial records investigated by conservative Spanish outlet La Gaceta and reported by Brussels Signal. The financing flows through the Fund for the Internationalisation of Enterprise, an export-promotion facility run by Spain's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business.
The largest single package, €754.3 million, was cleared by the Spanish cabinet on February 11, 2025, for Morocco's state rail company, the Office National des Chemins de Fer. The credit covers up to 40 new intercity trains built by Basque manufacturer CAF, plus delivery, commissioning and roughly two decades of maintenance, as Morocco rushes to expand its network ahead of co-hosting the 2030 FIFA World Cup alongside Spain and Portugal. A further €700 million, across several tranches, is earmarked for Egypt's Cairo metro and Talgo-built night trains. Spain lent €190 million for the Casablanca tram network and €57 million for Talgo trains in Uzbekistan, both in 2019.
Transport minister Óscar Puente told reporters that the Toledo crash occurred after a Renfe train was authorised to proceed through a red signal triggered by a computer communications failure, and that "an erroneous decision was taken to restart the Renfe train." Brussels Signal reported that the transport ministry insisted Spain's railways are safe even as the Toledo death toll climbed. The accident record tells a different story.
Spain's real capital expenditure on domestic railways sits 66.7 per cent below the peak recorded in 2009, according to research published in March 2026 by the BBVA Foundation and the Valencian Institute of Economic Research. Rail received €4.589 billion of the €16.1 billion invested across all public-use infrastructure in Spain in 2025, a total itself around 60 per cent down on 2009. European Commission data, cited by Reuters, shows that of the roughly €1.5 billion a year Spain spent on its high-speed network between 2018 and 2022, only about 16 per cent went to maintenance, renewals and upgrades.
Investigators examining the Adamuz crash found maintenance consumed 16 per cent of Adif's budget, roughly half the share at comparable European networks, Brussels Signal reported. Spain's railway safety authority counted accidents rising from 45 in 2016 to 57 in 2024 and 69 last year. A Reuters analysis of Spanish competition authority data found high-speed passenger numbers fell 14 per cent in the first half of 2026 against the same period in 2025. Renfe suspended ticket sales on the Madrid-Andalusia corridor until December 13.
The Ministry of Economy has insisted the foreign loans are repayable, not grants. That distinction mattered less to the passengers trapped in wrecked carriages outside Urda.
Published October 29, 2026 · Frisian News