Spanish engineers demand €10.5bn to fix rail safety gaps

Spain's association of civil engineers is calling for €10.5bn in rail maintenance spending, after identifying a cumulative shortfall of more than €3.6bn in the national network's upkeep following the fatal accidents at Urda on 28 October and Adamuz on 18 January.

The body has published a ten-point plan: five immediate measures and five medium-term structural reforms, drawn up to reverse what it describes as declining safety indicators and to restore public trust. It lands as state operator Renfe finalises plans to restore services between Malaga and Madrid.

What do the immediate measures cover?

The first proposal targets investigation capacity. The engineers say Spain's rail accident investigation body, Aitat, is still consolidating its structure. According to its staffing table dated 5 October 2026, seven of its 15 civil service posts in the rail sector remain vacant. The gaps extend beyond rail: seven of 19 maritime posts and nine of 29 civil aviation posts are also unfilled. The association wants sufficient technical and human resources for both Aitat and the judicial bodies, to clarify the direct, indirect and systemic causes of Urda and Adamuz quickly.

Second comes an in-depth system audit, with state railway safety agency AESF playing a key role. The engineers propose examining whether the BSL lateral signalling block — the backup activated when higher-level systems such as the LBZ fail — should be retained on high-speed lines at all.

Third is staff fitness and training. Daily traffic on the affected section of the Madrid–Seville line rose 24% between 2019 and 2025, from roughly 92 to about 114 trains a day, after Iryo launched in March 2023 and Ouigo in January 2025. That growth increases controller workload when incidents occur, the report notes. It calls for reviews of occupational and psychophysical assessments for controllers and drivers, staffing-level checks, and frequent incident simulations.

Fourth, the engineers urge strengthening external supplies — electricity and telecommunications — whose failure forces safety systems to shut down. They want redundancy through dual power supplies and uninterruptible power supply systems.

Fifth is train positioning. Beyond conventional track circuits and axle counters, the association recommends investigating safe GPS positioning to back up remote traffic management.

Where does the €10.5bn figure come from?

The medium-term reforms rest on money and planning. Spain has no national infrastructure plan since the 2014–2024 PITVI expired, in contrast to Switzerland, which plans budgets 25 years ahead. After roughly €70bn built the world's second-longest high-speed network behind China's, the engineers want budget priorities shifted toward capacity expansion, asset replacement, the conventional network and correcting excessive radiality.

Their preliminary estimate puts high-speed line maintenance at a minimum of €3.5bn over the next ten years, plus €7bn to make up the deficit accumulated over the last two decades. That is the €10.5bn total.

What governance changes are proposed?

The association questions the separation between infrastructure manager Adif and train operators, in place since 2005. It wants a review of Adif's organisational structure to integrate safety better, simplify structures, reduce political interference and anchor a national agreement with a 2050 timeframe. It also warns that hasty early retirements and excessive outsourcing of monitoring and maintenance are draining technical expertise.

On procurement, the engineers demand rigour in drafting technical projects to limit changes and cost overruns during construction and operation, and they reject auction-style tendering for railway maintenance contracts outright.

The final point is cultural. They propose reinstating a rule entitling any worker who receives an order they consider contrary to safety to report it to the issuer and take appropriate measures until further instructions arrive.

Whether Madrid acts on the staffing gaps and the BSL question before Aitat completes its investigations into Urda and Adamuz will shape how quickly Spain's safety indicators recover.