Spanish train drivers strike over safety as crash victims are remembered

Spanish train drivers have gone on strike over what their union says is a failure to address railway safety and maintenance, disrupting commuter and regional services on the day of a memorial for victims of a fatal crash near Urda.

The walkout follows two deadly train crashes on the Madrid–Seville high-speed line this year. The late-October collision near Urda killed 69 people. A Renfe train struck a stationary Iryo train, according to a report by Nieuws.nl, which cites ANP and Reuters.

The union, Semaf, says talks with the government about the state of the rail network broke down in April, around three months after a collision in southern Spain that killed 46 people. The union says safety and maintenance failures are behind the strike; the report does not include a response from the government or rail operators.

The strike has caused widespread cancellations, particularly on commuter and regional routes. It coincides with a memorial service in Toledo for those killed in the Urda crash, attended by Spain’s king and queen.

Semaf’s earlier 24-hour strike at Renfe was scheduled before the Urda crash and was also presented by the union as a protest over railway safety. Renfe disputed some of the union’s demands and said it had met its commitments after an earlier crash. The strike was due to go ahead after the Urda crash.