Spain's transport minister Oscar Puente resigns after Madrid-Seville train crash kills 69

Spain's transport minister Oscar Puente has resigned a week after a high-speed train crash on the Madrid to Seville line killed 69 people, one of the deadliest rail disasters in the country's history, Al Jazeera reported on Wednesday 4 November. He has also pulled out of the coming general election.

Puente said he decided to go right after the crash but stayed on while the government ran its first response. It was the second major crash on his watch in less than a year: in January a high-speed derailment in Andalusia killed 46 people. A minister "cannot continue in office" after accidents of this severity, he said.

What happened on the Madrid to Seville line

• When and where: Wednesday 28 October, in Castilla-La Mancha, central Spain.
• The crash: a high-speed train run by the state operator Renfe ran into a train that had stopped on the line, and also hit a train run by the private operator Iryo.
• Why trains were stopped: a signal failure on that stretch. Central controllers in Madrid, who took over after the failure, authorised the Renfe train to carry on, and it collided with the stopped train.

What Spain is doing now

• Fewer trains on the line while the Railway Safety Agency reviews its safety system.
• ERTMS: the government is finishing a delayed rollout of the European Rail Traffic Management System, the automatic train protection standard used across Europe.
• AI monitoring: an AI system will watch for anomalies and listen in on conversations between drivers and controllers. Puente said Spain would be the first country to use one.
• Money for families: Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced a EUR 30 million aid package. Each bereaved family gets EUR 72,121 in direct aid plus the same amount as an advance on compensation, about Rs 2.23 crore for each payment at today's euro rate of Rs 309.72.

If you are travelling in Spain

Thousands of Pakistanis live and work in Spain. Anyone booked on the Madrid to Seville high-speed line should expect fewer services while the safety review runs and check Renfe's or Iryo's own site for the current timetable before travelling.