What we know so far: 1. The last 3 cars from the Iryo train (Frecciarossa 1000) derailed for unknown reasons. It's a straight line, so this is extremely rare. 2. The Renfe train (Alvia) didn't have time to break and hit the derailed trains from Iryo, the two first cars derail as a consequence of the impact. 3. The Iryo train(Frecciarossa 1000), that caused the accident, was manufactured in 2022 and it passed a techni…
From a derailed train on a straight stretch of track... no. Very likely maintenance related somehow.
Spanish article from LaVanguardia states that the train was rather new and the track recently maintained.
Recently maintained is more concerning if you look at the failure rate as a bathtub curve. Failure rates are much higher within the days after maintenance because any defects in repairs are apt to show up quickly.
The most important context is this image[1] from the Guardia Civil. Using Google Maps, and using as context the tree, post and yellow connection box in the image, we can place its location at 180m before the accident in the tracks of the Iryo train. The image appears to show a track welding failure. This would match the reports of some passengers[2] that reported that the "train started shaking violently" before the…
The first image looks like sabotage to me. Continuous welded rail sections are much longer than this gap.
Looks like a pull-apart: bad weld, then cold weather caused contraction from both sides making a gap. Pretty massive for a pull-apart but not impossible.
The most important context is this image[1] from the Guardia Civil. Using Google Maps, and using as context the tree, post and yellow connection box in the image, we can place its location at 180m before the accident in the tracks of the Iryo train. The image appears to show a track welding failure. This would match the reports of some passengers[2] that reported that the "train started shaking violently" before the…
The first image looks like sabotage to me. Continuous welded rail sections are much longer than this gap.
If sabotage it will be plain as day to a trained eye. I await the report. That break could also be explained by the rail heading away in that photo snapping at that point because the train pushed it out, noting the rail has rotated 90 degrees clockwise -- something did that work, and it was probably the train going out and over. I'm not a rail tie expert (nor is anyone likely to be on HN) so I don't know if this is an unusual failure mode. But there was a line change point intersection immediately south of the crash. My money is there was a fault (accidental or deliberate) there, not at this snapping point.
Foreign operators are mandated by the EU, they can't be banned. Spain has been one of the first countries to allow foreign high speed operators (unlike other European countries that did attempt to delay their entrance as much as possible
France, for example, has been trying to delay allowing Renfe (Spanish operator) to operate through the country as much as possible, while their public operator SNCF (branded as Ouigo) has been able to operate here since 2021.
Interestingly SNCF is expected to subsidise less profitable local services with funds from the profitable high speed routes.
Open competition kind of spoils this model. It's not really sustainable.
The most important context is this image[1] from the Guardia Civil. Using Google Maps, and using as context the tree, post and yellow connection box in the image, we can place its location at 180m before the accident in the tracks of the Iryo train. The image appears to show a track welding failure. This would match the reports of some passengers[2] that reported that the "train started shaking violently" before the…
The first image looks like sabotage to me. Continuous welded rail sections are much longer than this gap.
Wouldn't the gap simply be the result of loss of tension after the weld broke? Metal expands in the heat (about 1cm per degree C per km). Weather shows it got down to around 0C in Córdoba last night while the summer record is around 47C so one would expect a fairly large gap once tension is released.
You left out that the machinists warned about the bad state of the railway tracks and asked for reducing the train speed[1]. There is underfunding in all the railway network. [1]: https://www.eldebate.com/economia/20250809/maquinistas-piden...
They fixed it long before this. That newspaper it's pretty much a right wing fake news source.
The machinists were warning about issues in the curve of Angrois for a long time. Why are you so quick on disregarding their opinion?
You mean the People's Party (PP) which was in charge when the Angrois derailment happened didn't do anything to address the warnings from the machinists? Because they had been in government for more than a year and a half already.
You mean the socialist party whose minister José Blanco opened the track?
>Our "high speed" rail is a joke Do you need high speed rail at all? There are not many points in the country that are more than 1 hour away with regular speed trains.
Taking a train to the nearest (usable) airport within the Netherlands takes between 2 and 2.5 hours depending on the available trains, amount of transfers, and "high-speed" (not actually) rail surcharge. Actually, because of a train hitting someone, I currently can't reach any airport by train because my city is right at the edge of the train network. Groningen-Schiphol is similar, and Maastricht-Schiphol is 2,5 hour…
and your country is 320 kilometers high and 250 wide. There may be a lot of problems with your rail network but insufficient train speed ain't one of them. With the current rail speeds you can cross it comfortably in two hours in any direction. Probably you need to optimize it, lay new train tracks, but there is no need to go for the expensive high speed.
You are answering all my comments with dismissing my points. Are you angry at them? Feel that your party threatened by them? You are acting like a good politician servant. I am bringing facts to the conversation while you try to derail it.
Huh? I'm answering to a whole lot of comments, not just yours, you're not special ;) I'm not angry at you or your comments, I'm mad about misinformation and opinion-pieces lacking nuance though, that I can confess. I have no party, I purposefully don't vote in the nationwide elections, only in local elections. Anything else you'd like to know about me? Or we're good-to-go for second date already?
You have no party but have a narrative pro-current government, while the corruption in Adif is at the worst level of history in Spain. Bravo!