Spain Train Crash: 69 Dead After High-Speed Collision Near Toledo

Update, 2 November 2026: Spanish authorities have now identified 66 of the 69 people who died, RTVE reported on Monday: 54 Spaniards and 12 foreign nationals. The Guardian reported that the foreign victims include four US citizens and one person each from Canada, Japan, Argentina, Mexico, Tunisia, the Czech Republic, France and Portugal. Three missing-person reports remain open, two for Australians and one for a Japanese national.

According to RTVE, 39 people remain in hospital, nine of them in intensive care, and 81 have been discharged. The Madrid–Andalusia high-speed line remains closed and Renfe has suspended ticket sales on the route until December; Renfe has also ordered trains to slow to 40 km/h if the LZB signalling system fails. Transport Minister Óscar Puente is due to appear before parliament’s Permanent Deputation on 3 November, and the government is expected to approve an aid decree on Tuesday.

At least 69 people were killed when a state-run Renfe AVE high-speed train ran into the back of a stationary Iryo train near Urda, in Spain’s Toledo province, on Wednesday morning (28 October), in one of the worst rail disasters in Europe’s modern history. Spain’s Transport Minister Óscar Puente has said the collision followed an “inexplicable” order from the rail control centre, and leaked audio has put the decisions made in the minutes before the crash at the centre of the inquiry.

The crash is Spain’s deadliest rail accident since 2013 and its second fatal high-speed collision this year. Three days of national mourning began on Thursday, and the disaster has quickly become a political issue a month before the general election on 29 November.

What Happened Near Urda?

According to the Spanish government’s account, reported by the BBC, the collision happened at 08:53 local time (07:53 GMT) between the municipalities of Mora and Orgaz, about 140km south of Madrid on the high-speed line to Seville. The privately run Iryo train was stationary when the Renfe train, travelling behind it, “barrelled into the back of it at high speed”.

Iryo said in a statement that its train had been “struck from behind” by a Renfe train “due to causes that are still unknown”. More than 540 people were on board the two trains. Esther Padilla, a spokesperson for the Castilla-La Mancha regional government, told TVE that the Iryo service was carrying 146 passengers plus a baby, while the Renfe train had 397 passengers.

How Many People Were Killed and Injured?

Spain’s independent rail accident investigator, AITAT, revised the death toll to 69 on Thursday, shortly after it had reported 74 fatalities, according to Xinhua. More than 100 people were treated for injuries. By the following day, 50 were still in hospital and 15 were in a critical condition, the BBC reported. Hospitals in Toledo, Ciudad Real and Alcázar de San Juan cancelled routine procedures as casualties arrived, and the Civil Guard set up missing-person offices in Madrid, Toledo, Seville and Córdoba.

Among those killed were Julieta Gallego, a 24-year-old Spanish long jumper, and Fátima Báñez, 59, a former government minister.

What Caused the Crash?

The official investigation is still at an early stage, and no final cause has been established. However, Puente said a computer failure at about 08:30 on Wednesday led to six moving trains being halted, including the two that later collided. He said the decision that followed, which allowed services to resume, was taken “under inexplicable circumstances”.

Leaked recordings published in Spain appear to show what happened next. In one, the controller tells the driver of the Renfe train to disconnect and reconnect the LZB system, which monitors train speeds, and then to continue at normal speed. In another, the driver of the Iryo train tells the control centre that the train “is stationary in front of the entry signal at Urda”, and later says it cannot be restarted. The BBC noted that the later recording suggests the controller had been told the Iryo train was still stationary as the Renfe train approached, about 25km behind.

Questions about staffing in the control centres and the state of Spain’s high-speed network are now being raised by rail unions and opposition parties. Those claims have not yet been tested by the investigation.

Has Spain Had Other High-Speed Crashes?

Yes. In January, Iryo and Renfe high-speed trains collided near Adamuz, in Córdoba province, killing 46 people, ABC News reported. The Urda crash is the deadliest since July 2013, when 80 people were killed and more than 170 injured after a train from Madrid to Ferrol derailed near Santiago de Compostela in Galicia.

Spain has Europe’s largest high-speed network, and two serious collisions in a year are likely to put pressure on the infrastructure manager Adif, the operators and the signalling and traffic-control systems that keep trains apart.

How Have Spain’s Politicians Responded?

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who visited the crash site on Wednesday, said “the whole of Spain is grieving” and that “lives have been shattered, families have been torn apart”.

Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the conservative People’s Party, which leads most opinion polls ahead of the 29 November election, said it was not the day to talk about political responsibility, but insisted that “Spain has the right to know what is going on with its infrastructure”. Santiago Abascal’s far-right Vox refused to take part in what the party called attempts to “use mourning to silence criticism” of the rail network.

What Does It Mean for Travellers?

Further disruption on the Madrid–Seville corridor is possible while investigators work at the scene. Passengers booked on high-speed trains in southern Spain should check with Renfe, Iryo or Ouigo before travelling. Our guide to whether travel insurance is worth it explains what policies typically cover when transport is cancelled, and our explainer on the EU’s EES and ETIAS rules covers the new entry requirements for visitors to Spain.

Featured image: A Renfe AVE Class 103 high-speed train, by Bonaventura Leris / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0. File photo; not the train involved in the crash.

Sources

• BBC News — What we know so far about deadly Spain train crash (30 October 2026).
• ABC News — Train collision on high-speed line in Spain (28 October 2026).
• Xinhua — Spain revises death toll of high-speed train collision to 69 (29 October 2026).
• AP — Spain train crash: causes and union concerns (30 October 2026).
• The Guardian — Spain train crash: US citizens among dead as victims from Japan and Canada identified (2 November 2026).
• RTVE — Accidente de Urda: identificados 66 de los 69 muertos (2 November 2026).