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Spain’s King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia attended a memorial service on Tuesday for the 69 people killed when a high-speed train ploughed into a stationary train on the Madrid-Seville line near the town of Urda, about 40 miles from Toledo. Twenty-eight survivors remain in hospital.
The collision, the worst rail disaster in Spain since 2013, occurred roughly two weeks ago. Bystanders applauded the king and queen as they entered the cathedral, and after the Catholic Mass the royal couple spoke privately with relatives of the dead.
Archbishop Cerro Chaves addressed those gathered with a sombre assessment of the toll. “The tragic accident in Urda has left our families, our towns and our society with a pain that is difficult to accept,” he said. Representatives of the victims carried lit candles to the front of the cathedral and placed them beside the main altar. The first reading was delivered by Ana Benítez, sister of David Benítez, a 38-year-old father of two who died in the crash.
Senior political figures were also present, including Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the opposition People’s Party; Emiliano García-Page, president of the Castilla-La Mancha region; and Carlos Cuerpo, who holds the combined Transport and Economy portfolio. Cuerpo assumed responsibility for transport only last week, following the resignation of Óscar Puente under mounting public pressure over the disaster.
The Urda crash is Spain’s second major rail tragedy this year. In January, 46 people died in a separate collision on the same high-speed line near the Andalusian town of Adamuz. Some residents of Adamuz attended Tuesday’s memorial alongside people from Urda.
The investigation into the Urda crash is continuing. Puente, before his resignation, suggested that human error combined with a fault in the safety system may have been responsible, though no formal findings have been published.
The disaster has acquired a sharp political dimension. It occurred less than a month before a general election on 29 November, and is widely seen as a liability for Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez as he seeks re-election.
The memorial coincided with a nationwide strike by train drivers demanding improved safety on the rail network. Rail services faced further disruption on Wednesday from a separate general strike led by housing activists calling for urgent measures to curb rental costs.