The Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, has defended that it is "false" that the Executive has deceived the European Union with the replacement of the LZB system by ERTMS on the Madrid-Seville line, where the Urda (Toledo) accident occurred.
In a press appearance at the Ministry headquarters, Puente set out the reasons for the delay in replacing the LZB system with ERTMS in the Madrid-Seville corridor, an action that was initially scheduled for April 2026.
The Transport chief has flatly rejected the accusations of having misled the community institutions about the entry into service of ERTMS, stressing that "the European Union is not deceived; it is provided with work completion certificates".
According to the minister, what has been sent to Brussels in this project is "the provisional reception certificate for the physical installation of ERTMS in June of the year 2026".
At the same time, Puente insisted that the migration work to the new signaling system has had "nothing to do with the accident", thereby seeking to close any doubt about a possible influence of the modernization works on the rail accident.
Some tests still need to be completed
The Transport minister pointed out that, although the ERTMS equipment is already installed along the entire line, it is still not operational because its entry into service requires completing two stages: first a phase of tests and verifications in the laboratory and, afterward, obtaining authorization from the State Railway Safety Agency.
The minister emphasized that Spain has decided to "combine the provision of service with the reform or improvement works on all lines", and noted that "the installation of ERTMS II has taken place while service was being provided" and that "it has not been interrupted in any case to carry out the works for implementing the service".
Puente explained that most of the deployment tasks are carried out "fundamentally at night in maintenance windows and in the case of the tests, at night on weekends", which has allowed the line to continue operating throughout the technological upgrade process.
With regard to the doubts about whether ERTMS tests were being carried out at the time of the accident, the minister has been emphatic in assuring that "those tests had already concluded and were in the laboratory" when the accident occurred.
Puente has reiterated that "no tests were being carried out with the ERTMS nor was any work related to it being carried out at that moment that could have had an effect on the causation or concurred in the causation of the accident", once again ruling out any link between the implementation work and what happened.
The minister has recalled that the contract for the system change "is signed or put out to tender in the year 2021, it is awarded to a company" that "begins to develop the implementation of the system, which is an extremely complex implementation over 470 kilometers, since physical elements have to be replaced".
Finally, the Minister of Transport has advanced that the forecast is for the ERTMS signaling and safety system to be in operation on the Madrid-Andalucía line in January 2027.