Spain's transport minister, Óscar Puente, announced his resignation on Tuesday, 3 November, at the end of a congressional appearance lasting more than four hours, during which he answered questions from every political group about the train collision in Urda (Toledo) that has killed 69 people, according to Infobae. Puente said he was stepping down both as minister and as a candidate, giving up his place at the head of the Socialist Party (PSOE) list for Valladolid in the general election of 29 November. "I resign the post and I resign from going on the lists for the coming elections," he said, as reported by Infobae.
Why it matters
The resignation comes as Spanish politics returns to normal activity after days of official mourning for the crash, which happened the previous Wednesday. Infobae reports that Puente appeared before the Congress's Permanent Deputation with minimal backing from the government's partners, who, like the opposition, had been calling for him to leave his post. The parties are now reorganising their campaigns for the 29 November vote in a landscape shaped entirely by the tragedy. According to Infobae, polling before the crash had shown the PSOE recovering steadily while still trailing the conservative PP, with a clear majority for a PP–Vox bloc; since Urda, the Socialists have fallen in every published survey, the PP has widened its lead and Vox has recorded its largest gain since the legislature began.
Infobae reports that Puente told the chamber he had informed Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of his decision minutes before making it public, and thanked Sánchez for his "limitless confidence."
A defence of Adif and the LZB system
Much of the session was taken up with the state rail infrastructure manager, Adif, and with the signalling system at the centre of the investigation. Puente walked lawmakers through the changing composition of Adif's management committee over several presidencies. He said that under Juan Bravo the committee had six members, five of them from outside the company; under Isabel Pardo de Vera, between 2018 and 2021, it had 13, seven of them external. With Ángel Contreras as president, while Puente held the ministry, it had 11 members, four from outside. Under the current president, Pedro Marco de la Peña, 16 people in total have passed through the body, only three of them from outside the company. "All the rest are people from Adif's own staff," the minister said, according to Infobae.
He defended the current leadership, saying its members have "more than ample preparation and more than proven experience" for their roles. "They are not there for political reasons, they are there for fundamentally managerial and technical reasons," he said. "I am not prepared to let anyone play with anybody's life." He also rejected the idea that he had concealed information: "I don't blame a worker, but nor do I hide the facts." He asked rhetorically what a response to a crisis should look like — "Hiding your head under your wing, not giving explanations?"
On the LZB signalling system, Infobae reports that Puente told the chamber that of more than 170 incidents logged in the system this year, 64 affected train movements. He described this as "a relatively frequent occurrence" and set out figures for incidents affecting services from 2010 to 2026. He said there was no upward trend: "There is no pattern that gives us an image of incidents affecting circulation increasing in a linear way; they vary depending on the year." He compared LZB with ERTMS, used on the Madrid–Barcelona line, and said it "does not offer clearly superior performance to LZB."
Answering EH Bildu on the cause of the LZB failure on the day of the crash, Puente said: "That day the LZB falls, as far as we know, because of a communication failure between three computers." He explained that these must stay synchronised and that when information does not match, the system blocks automatically. He acknowledged that the origin of the failure is still unknown, because the technology company tasked with analysing the event has been unable to carry out the technical examination for lack of the necessary judicial authorisation, according to Infobae.
Aid package and a strike threat
The appearance coincided with a meeting of the Council of Ministers expected to approve a set of measures for victims of the crash. Infobae reports that Sánchez said on Monday that the decree would include financial aid doubling the amount paid under the compulsory travellers' insurance, together with a specific mechanism to speed up payment of compensation.
The political pressure did not come only from the chamber. El Mundo reports that the government had ruled out resignations and announced a package of measures intended to "minimise risks," and that the unions responded by calling a rail strike in the middle of the election campaign. Infobae also reports that PSOE spokesman Patxi López defended the government's record on rail and criticised PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo for "using" the victims. Clarín reported the minister's resignation under the headline "Train collision in Spain: the transport minister resigned."
What happens next will be watched on two fronts: who Sánchez names to replace Puente at Transportes, and whether the compensation decree approved alongside the resignation is enough to calm the dispute with the rail unions before polling day on 29 November.
