Spain high-speed train crash kills at least 30 as VOX politicizes disaster

At least 30 people have died in a new train crash in Spain. The far-right party VOX immediately turned the catastrophe into a campaign issue.

28 October 2026, 13:19

Rescue workers tend to injured people on Wednesday, 28 October 2026, after the collision of two trains in the Spanish town of Urda. Photo: Manu Fernandez/ap

By Reiner Wandler, Madrid

At least 30 passengers died on Wednesday morning in a train crash in Spain. According to state broadcaster RNE, at least 46 people were also injured, some seriously.

At 8:54 a.m., a high-speed train operated by the state railway RENFE, travelling on the Madrid–Seville line 118 kilometres south of Madrid, crashed into another train belonging to the private operator Iryo. Two carriages were thrown off the tracks and fell down the railway embankment. According to RENFE, speaking to RNE, the death toll could rise to 40.

Train traffic between Madrid and Seville has been suspended until further notice. It will presumably take days before the line can be reopened. Although mourning initially prevailed, the accident is expected soon to dominate the pre-election campaign for the parliamentary elections on 29 November.

The accident near the town of Urda in the province of Toledo, in the Castilla-La Mancha region, is the second serious incident on the line from Madrid to southern Spain in just a few months. In January of this year, further south, a high-speed Iryo train derailed and caused an oncoming RENFE train to leave the tracks. There were 46 deaths and more than 150 injuries. The cause of that accident was a rail that had broken at a weld seam. The consequences were serious accusations against the government of having neglected infrastructure.

Socialists and Conservatives Cancel Campaign Events

This time, human error is likely the cause of the accident. According to press reports, the control centre at Madrid's Atocha station is said to have cleared the line even though the Iryo train was standing there. The driver of the RENFE high-speed train had no chance to brake in time.

"The impact was extremely violent," reported Miguel Ángel Pérez Laguna, a radio editor who was on board the RENFE train, to the Valencian regional station Capital Radio. Even in one of the rear carriages, he felt the impact as if it had occurred "directly in front of me." He saw the two Iryo carriages being thrown off the tracks. The two carriages together weigh 100 tonnes. A total of 147 passengers were on the Iryo train and 397 on the RENFE train.

While rescue workers — including the army's emergency unit (UME) — searched for injured and surviving passengers in the wrecked carriages at the scene, a radio appeal was made for blood donations in Madrid. Two assistance centres for passengers and relatives were set up in the municipality of Urda, where they are receiving medical care and psychological support. Alternatives are being organised at the major stations along the route for those unable to travel by train. Transport Minister Oscar Puente went immediately to the aforementioned control centre to obtain "all available information about the incident."

Spain is in the middle of the pre-election campaign for the snap parliamentary elections on 29 November. The two major parties — the socialist PSOE of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and the conservative Partido Popular (PP) of challenger Alberto Núñez Feijóo — cancelled all campaign events. Sánchez said on X that he was "dismayed by the serious train crash in Toledo." He expressed his sympathy to those affected and their relatives. "The most important thing now is to take care of the victims and their families," explained Feijóo.

The third-strongest force in the Spanish parliament, the far-right VOX, which hopes to govern as a coalition partner with the PP, showed less decency. It kept its appointments. VOX leader Santiago Abascal even gave an interview on a private television channel. He spoke of a "decline of infrastructure and institutions in Spain." This was "completely unbearable." On X he went a step further and expressed his "anger at the neglect, decline and betrayal under which Spaniards are suffering."

Related articles:

• Train Crash in Spain: Death Toll Rises to at Least 30 — Two high-speed trains collide, sending two carriages down an embankment. The crash evokes memories of the January catastrophe.
• Another Train Crash in Spain: One Dead and More Than 30 Injured — A storm leads to another train accident in Catalonia. What is known about the crash near Barcelona.
• After Train Crash in Spain: At Least 41 People Dead — As a three-day period of national mourning begins, rescue work continues. The search for the cause of the accident goes on.