Oct 28, 2026, 8:46 AMAdif has suspended high speed travel on the Madrid-Andalucía line because of two trains colliding near Los Yébenes, in Toledo. Reportedly an Ave and an Iryo train.
News is still emerging, and I’ll try to filter out the speculation here.
This is the same line as the Adamuz incident earlier this year.
Oct 28, 2026, 9:10 AMBased on the photos that are available, it looks like the AVE was a Series 103 (Velaro). The other train in the crash is a Series 109 (Frecciarossa)
Oct 28, 2026, 9:56 AMIt appears that the Iryo train was stopped on the line, and the AVE train crashed into the back of it. Government sources are cited by El País as saying that the entire safety system was down, and the trains were under manual control by signallers based out of Atocha. It appears to have been human error that the AVE was given the order to enter the Iryo train’s block.
There is an official count of 46 dead so far. I am not going to keep posting the counter.
Oct 28, 2026, 2:30 PMMinister Oscar Puente has given a press conference, adding some facts.
At around 08:30, LZB failed in a stretch of 63km of track. There were six trains on the tracks at the time. The system failed safe and all six trains stopped.
At 08:36 the driver of the AVE was given authority to start up again and told to go at normal speed. Line speed is 300km/h according to openrailwaymap, although the minister said that the maximum speed was 200. We do not know yet the speed at which the train was going when it crashed.
The AVE started 25km away from the Iryo train, and collided at 08:53.
He also stated that another train in the affected area was also given the authority to start and instructed to proceed normally, to which that driver replied that procedure was to go on visual rules, which means at a speed that allows for them to stop if necessary. The signaller corrected themself.
No explanation was given as to why these orders were given.
Oct 28, 2026, 2:35 PMAnother thing that was mentioned was that the Iryo was also given the authority to start, and communicated a couple of minutes later that it was unable to. We do not know why.
@moof This is starting to be quite a worrying trend =(
Oct 28, 2026, 8:50 AM@mattsqu This is definitely not a good time to be on trains…
Oct 28, 2026, 10:06 AM@moof this is just devastating
@moof If it was on "manual control" without an automatic safety sytem, how come they are still going fast enough to cause such damage?
Oct 28, 2026, 10:28 AM@NinaRckln This, as well as failing to check if the Iryo train was moving are things that should be in the report when it is made.
@NinaRckln This differs by country and I don’t know details in Spain or what procedure was used in this case, but it’s normal that there is a manual procedure of operation that allows somewhere between 50-100 km/h completely without electronic signalling, so stopping distance can be a few hundred meters. It’s not wrong per se, but it is uncommon in use because of the inherent risk of human error.
Oct 28, 2026, 12:04 PM@stefanlindbohm @NinaRckln I’ve been looking at this. The rules for passing a red signal state the driver should be under would be shunting rules, max 40kph. Alternatively sight rules, which should be at a speed where the driver is capable of braking in time if they see an obstruction.
Either way, there seems no logical reason for the driver to have been going at that speed
@moof @stefanlindbohm @NinaRckln is there any way the train could be operating without the drivers control?
@moof @NinaRckln Ah right, that makes sense. Unless there would be a way for signallers to go into a manual mode and set the signal to green under a manual operating procedure?
@stefanlindbohm @moof @NinaRckln I believe there are such procedures in Poland, to be used when the automatic block is malfunctioning. It would make sense
Oct 28, 2026, 1:09 PM@stefanlindbohm @NinaRckln You can have a flashing white signal on as a “things aren’t working normally, here’s authority anyway” type signal, but that still limits speed.
@moof @stefanlindbohm @NinaRckln Most trains have a possibility to bypass the on-board signalling system. Technically enforcing a speed restriction if those systems are bypassed is not uncommon (max between 30 and 100 km/h) but not all trains have such an enforced speed restriction.
@moof yes, trains involved are reported as AVE 2080 (Renfe tracker data) and Iryo 6076 (company announcement reported by Sky), which matches those types.
@moof @quixoticgeek craaaaaaap. Here's a photo I took on a S102 (pato) on that line earlier this month. The idea of it suddenly stopping from high speed by hitting another train is horror movie stuff. Our thoughts with those involved.
