Investigation into rail tragedy in Spain finds marks of broken track on the derailed train

The Iryo train that crashed on Sunday in Adamuz in the Spanish province of Córdoba displays marks on the wheels of the first five carriages that passed over the track before its derailment, as evidenced by the work carried out by Spain’s Railway Accident Investigation Commission (CIAF). These marks, up to the size of a coin, could coincide with the break in the track at kilometer 318 of the Madrid-Seville line, which is where the tragic accident occurred, leaving 42 people dead. Spanish Minister of Transport Óscar Puente has acknowledged the discovery of unusual scratches, which may be compatible with those of the Iryo train, which were also detected “on the two or three trains that passed before [the accident].”

Iryo train 6189, which was traveling between Málaga and Madrid, derailed at 7:45 p.m. on Sunday, entering the opposite track and causing a collision, some 20 seconds later, with the Alvia train 2384 — operated by Spain’s state-owned rail company Renfe — which was providing service between Madrid and Huelva. “The bogies [wheeled undercarriage assemblies] of the first five cars show a mark, and it is possible that the two or three trains that passed before have similar marks. The question now is to find out how these marks were made. Whether there was something on the tracks, or whether it was the track itself that was beginning to break. At this point, it is not possible to determine what caused these marks,” Puente said in an interview with Telecinco in response to a report published in El Mundo.

Since Monday, the investigation has focused on the first section of track that was torn up, where a weld may have broken. Investigators are analyzing whether this 30-centimeter cut in the track was the cause or consequence of the derailment of the first train involved in the collision. CIAF personnel began analyzing the wheels of several Iryo trains on Tuesday which, as reported by this newspaper, traveled over the critical point of the accident up to nine times last Sunday. Evidence that the wheels were affected was collected on Tuesday at the Santa Catalina maintenance workshop in Madrid.

The marks on the running gear of Iryo’s Frecciarossa train also occupied Civil Guard officers deployed in Adamuz on Tuesday, who managed to extract samples of them in molds. The task now is to match these marks with the weld on the rail in the first segment that was lifted. The investigation involves the operator Iryo, the train manufacturer Hitachi, and the Spanish railway infrastructure manager Adif. Renfe is also involved, as it was directly affected by the collision between its Alvia train and the derailed Iryo unit.

The Iryo high-speed train was traveling at around 200 kilometers per hour (125 mph), below the 250 kilometer per hour limit set for the straight section of track in Adamuz, on the Madrid-Seville line. The pressure of the weight on a rail with a possible defect could have triggered the breakage and derailment at the sixth, seventh, and eighth cars. The Alvia train was also well below the speed limit, at around 200 kilometers per hour.

CIAF will determine the causes of the accident in its report. If it was caused by the track, the ultimate responsibility would fall on the public company Adif, which manages the high-speed rail network. The section of track where the accident occurred had been renovated, as had the rest of the line, between 2022 and May 2025, with upgrades to the track and its safety system. The investment amounted to €700 million ($821 million).

In addition, as reported yesterday by EL PAÍS, Adif carried out a triple inspection at the epicenter of the disaster between October and November. The first inspection, a geometric inspection, took place on October 3 to check the leveling (longitudinal and transverse), alignment, cant, and track width. The tests were passed. On November 21, there was a dynamic inspection, which checks the safety and communications systems with the control center. And on November 5, there was a foot inspection, carried out by Adif technicians, on four kilometers of track that included the accident site.

Regarding the audio recording released yesterday in which the Iryo train driver and the Adif control center at Renfe can be heard talking, Puente explained that the time between the first call — in which the driver reported that he had stopped the train after feeling a “snag” — and the second — in which he realized that the rear carriages had derailed and crossed onto the opposite track and that there was a fire in one of them — was “three or four minutes.”

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