Adif has stepped in to address the controversy over the economic incentives for its executives after it approved a new financing agreement for the period 2026-2030, amid a crisis in the Spanish rail system following the accidents in Adamuz (Córdoba) and Urda (Toledo), which have left 115 fatalities in less than a year. The public infrastructure manager denies that it has approved new bonuses for its top leadership and argues that payments linked to meeting objectives form part of a remuneration mechanism in force since 2012, which currently affects more than one third of its workers.
The controversy arises after El Mundo reported the renewal of the Incentives Plan for Management in the agreements approved on the past 4 November, just a few hours before the then chairman of Adif, Luis Pedro Marco de la Peña, left the post. The company has responded with a statement in which it rejects information about a supposed “shielding” of the bonuses and says that the agreement does not introduce a new system, but maintains the existing one.
However, the economic documentation for the agreement includes a relevant fact: between 2021 and 2025, the level of compliance with objectives recognized by Adif to determine these incentives ranged between 98.4% and 100%, according to the information published by El Mundo. In the 2024 and 2025 financial years, the percentage reached 100%, a circumstance that contrasts with the deterioration of various rail service indicators and that has reopened the debate about how the management of the public company is assessed.
Adif denies new bonuses and says the incentives affect a third of its workforce
In a statement released after the publication of the information, Adif and Adif Alta Velocidad have rejected that their boards of directors approved a new specific bonus for management. Both entities maintain that news about a supposed “shielding” of these remuneration packages provides a “biased and incomplete” view of the agreement.
As the company explains, the boards of directors of the November 4 had as their only item on the agenda the approval of the agreements with the General Administration of the State to guarantee the economic sustainability of the rail network during the period 2026-2030. These agreements, the processing of which had begun months earlier, provide for around €19 billion earmarked mainly for the conservation and maintenance of infrastructures.
The rail operator acknowledges, however, that the agreements include business objectives linked to the remuneration of part of its workers. Specifically, 5,216 employees of Adif and Adif Alta Velocidad, from a joint workforce close to 14,000 people, receive a variable portion of their salary depending on the degree to which objectives are met.
The company states that this system does not affect exclusively the top executives, but also senior management, the management structure, support staff, and middle managers. It also insists that variable pay has been applied since 2012 and was already included in the corresponding agreement for the 2021-2025 period.
Adif’s explanation introduces an important distinction: the continuation of an incentive system does not necessarily imply the approval of an extraordinary bonus. However, it also does not eliminate the fact that the new agreement maintains the possibility of receiving additional remuneration linked to the achievement of business objectives.
Objective achievement reached 100% in 2024 and 2025
One of the aspects that has drawn the most criticism is the evaluation of objectives during the last financial years. According to the economic report of the agreement cited by El Mundo, Adif acknowledged compliance of between 98.4% and 100% during the period 2021-2025, with a maximum assessment in the last two years.
These results are produced in a context of growing concern about the quality of rail service, delays, and incidents on the network. During that period, the Ministry of Transport had already made changes to the presidency of Adif and acknowledged problems related to the image and operation of high-speed rail.
The contrast between internal evaluations and the evolution of the service raises questions about what indicators are used to determine incentives and the extent to which they reflect passengers’ experience, the state of the infrastructure, and the reliability of the network.
Nevertheless, meeting a business objective does not necessarily mean that all quality or safety indicators have improved. Variable remuneration plans may include economic criteria, investment, and budget execution criteria that do not directly match train punctuality or user satisfaction.
Precisely for this reason, the controversy focuses both on the existence of incentives and on how their fulfillment is measured, as well as on the consequences of not achieving the results expected.
Incentives were renewed after the Adamuz and Urda accidents
The approval of the agreements took place at a particularly delicate moment for the Spanish rail system. The accident of Adamuz, which occurred in January 2026, left 46 fatalities, while the train collision recorded in Urda last 28 October caused another 69 deaths, bringing the combined toll of both tragedies to 115.
After the Urda accident, the then Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, announced his resignation on 3 November during a parliamentary appearance. A day later, the boards of directors of Adif and Adif Alta Velocidad approved the new funding agreements.
The meeting was chaired by Luis Pedro Marco de la Peña, whose continued tenure at the helm of the rail manager had been called into question following the incidents. Subsequently, Marco de la Peña submitted his resignation to the new Minister of Transport, Carlos Cuerpo, who accepted his departure.
Adif has emphasized that the boards had been convened on 30 October, before Puente’s resignation, and that the approval of the agreements responded to an obligation provided for in the Railway Sector Law. In this way, the company rejects that the meetings were organized specifically to guarantee bonuses for executives before the handover of their chairmanship.
The context has moved the debate to the political sphere. The president of the Partido Popular, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has demanded the return of the bonuses received by executives and has questioned that economic incentives be maintained after two accidents of such severity. Adif, for its part, argues that an ordinary wage mechanism is being confused with the approval of extraordinary awards.