Spain’s train drivers call three-day strike after deadly accidents
44 people have died in two incidents that happened just days apart
Spanish train drivers on Wednesday called a three-day strike for February, plunging the country’s under-scrutiny railways into further turmoil, after two accidents just days apart killed 44 people.
A train driver died and 37 people were injured – several seriously – in the latest incident on Tuesday, when a commuter service hit a retaining wall that fell onto the tracks in Gelida near Barcelona.
Spain was already observing three days of national mourning from Sunday’s collision involving two high-speed trains in the southern region of Andalusia that killed 43 people – the country’s deadliest rail accident in more than a decade.
The back-to-back tragedies have raised doubts about the safety of train travel in Spain, which boasts the world’s second-largest high-speed network that has received huge investment in recent years.
The February 9-11 walkout will affect all train companies and is “the only legal route left for workers to demand the restoration of the rail system’s safety” for staff and users, the Semaf driver union said in a statement.
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The two disasters “represent a turning point”, the union added, saying numerous reports about “the poor state of the tracks” went unanswered “for months, even years”.