The Railway Union has announced a call for a demonstration in Madrid this Saturday with the purpose of demanding the "maximum safety" in the Spanish railways. The union organization also calls for a "radical change" in the actions of the Administrations and the launch of a sectoral table that brings together everyone involved.
The mobilization, defined as a protest "in defense of maximum safety" on the state rail network, will begin at 12.00 hours from the gardens of Nuevos Ministerios, in front of the headquarters of the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility. The route will continue along the Paseo de la Castellana, Paseo de Recoletos, Paseo del Prado and will end at Plaza del Congreso.
In a statement, the union calls for a "radical change" in the railway policies of the public Administrations, so that the Ministry, Adif and the operating companies place as a priority the safety of services, of travelers and of the railway workforces.
With this aim, the Railway Union proposes to reach the "maximum consensus" among all stakeholders in the sector and to set up a specific table in which unions, victims’ associations and the AESF would also be present. This body would have the task of studying the current situation, proposing actions in the field of safety and approving urgent measures that mitigate "as much as possible the deficiencies" that were brought to light after the deadly accidents of Angrois (Santiago de Compostela), Adamuz (Córdoba) and Urda (Toledo), in order to prevent similar tragedies from happening again.
In particular, the union organization calls for a "critical and independent" review of the CIAF report on the Angrois accident — in which 80 people died in 2013 — with the participation of European bodies and full guarantees of independence, to clarify all aspects of the accident and its causes.
Likewise, the union demands an independent investigation, under European supervision, into the accidents of Adamuz and Urda in this 2026. Among its proposals is the withdrawal of the ASFA as a backup system for the nominal LZB and Ertms systems in high-speed rail, replacing it with a modification of "all the regulations" that requires continuing to move forward with sight and without exceeding 40 kilometers per hour when a nominal system failure occurs.
The Railway Union also calls for an independent audit on the renewal of the Madrid–Seville line, the acceleration of the ERTMS coming into service on this corridor, and a change in the maintenance model that gives Adif “total and absolute” control over all infrastructure conservation tasks using its own resources.
Lastly, the SF demands strengthening the headcount at the traffic regulation centers; the “end of the pressures” on train driving, traffic and management center staff who “put production criteria ahead of safety criteria”; and the implementation of a “real safety culture” so that “nothing and nobody” is placed above it in railway operations, among other measures.