Two fatal train accidents in Spain in nine months have heightened fears about rail travel: ‘I’m going to buy a plane or bus ticket. Anything but the train’
The growing number of rail accidents is increasing anxiety among travelers, who are seeking alternatives, and causing a crisis in the industry
Fear and uncertainty. Those are the two words most often heard at Chamartín train station in Madrid. On the face of it, everything seems normal: machines are still issuing tickets, and passengers are dragging their heavy suitcases from one place to another. There is, however, something most admit: they had doubts about traveling. The crash on Wednesday near the Urda station, in Toledo, is worrying all passengers.
Carlota Rodríguez Font, a 20-year-old student from Córdoba travelling to Vigo for an industrial engineering conference, is still waiting to be rebooked. She laments the feeling of insecurity she experiences every time she has to take a train. “We have to return to Córdoba on Sunday, but how are we going to take a train after such a tragic accident? I’m going to buy a plane or bus ticket. Anything but the train.” Cristina Pérez, 31, shares that same uncertainty. She did not hesitate to board her train Wednesday to Salamanca, but she admits that since the Adamuz crash, which occurred in January and left 46 people dead, she always buys tickets thinking: “I hope it doesn’t happen to me.” Several passengers expressed similar thoughts.
“It’s a normal reaction,” says Ana Isabel Fernández, a psychologist who specializes in treating phobias such as fear of flying. “When these events occur, people need time for their brains to process everything and for that heightened state of alert to subside.” Fernández says the problem is that this tragedy comes only nine months after the previous one, which has not yet been resolved or explained. Nor have solutions been put forward. “Giving a clear explanation of what happened and putting the means in place to fix it can mitigate fear,” she explains. “That happened after the Germanwings crash [in 2015], when the pilot killed himself along with all passengers on board [protocols were then established to never leave a pilot alone in the cockpit], or after the 9/11 attacks [after which airport security checks were increased]. If measures are taken to prevent new accidents, it gives people a degree of confidence. If there is no such review, it doesn’t.”
More than nine months after the Adamuz tragedy, the investigation into the crash continues. The main hypothesis points to a broken track. It is not a specific, isolated problem such as a terrorist act or a suicide. It is not due to a human error that can be easily corrected. It is something much more systemic. In February, a drivers’ strike called for increased investment in infrastructure. At the time, it was agreed to raise the budget by about €1.8 billion through 2030. That announcement does not appear to have improved the general perception of the train as a safe mode of transport.
Spanish high-speed rail is going through its worst crisis since 1992, with falling passenger numbers and persistent distrust, according to the National Commission on Markets and Competition (CNMC) and an Ipsos survey published this summer. In the first quarter of the year, high-speed and long-distance services lost 21% of passengers, down to 8.05 million. The Madrid–Málaga/Granada corridor was the hardest hit, with a 61% drop compared with 2025. Today there are more operators, more competition, and people travel more. The problem is different: it is fear. Almost half of rail passengers are considering stopping their use of trains or have already stopped using them, according to a special study on Spain’s rail system by the 40dB institute, published last February. The Urda crash could push those figures even higher.
The train is, together with the airplane, the safest mode of transport. According to the Directorate-General for Traffic (DGT), 1,806 people died in road accidents in Spain in 2023. That same year, according to the Ministry of Transport, there were 22 deaths on Spain’s rail system. The figure is in line with recent years, with the exceptions of 2013, the year of the Alvia Santiago tragedy that left 79 people dead, and the current year, 2026, which now totals at least 111 fatalities.
Eurostat records annual railway fatalities in Europe, which have fallen by 32% since 2010. Suicides on railroad tracks (between 2,200 and 2,800 per year) are reported separately and typically triple the number of accident-related deaths, which stood at 750 last year.
But the data, which once served to reassure, now only cause concern. The succession of two such high-profile and devastating incidents has done a great deal of damage to a sector that is also plagued by failures, incidents, and problems. Added to this is the political turmoil. “The AVE to Madrid is no longer safe,” Andalusia regional premier Juanma Moreno, of the opposition Popular Party, said Wednesday. Strikes, statements, videos of passengers complaining about excessive shaking on trains… Beyond the objective facts, a climate of public mistrust toward the rail network is taking hold.
High-profile tragedies can push people to form a distorted view of reality. That is what is happening now, with images of the disaster and victims’ statements on television all day. “People who have some fear or anxiety tend to consume a lot of information about the tragedy, but it is counterproductive,” Fernández says. She advises in such cases to avoid television and let time pass. The fear of taking the train does not seem likely to disappear overnight. Nor does the rail sector’s crisis.
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