Spanish track was fractured before high-speed train disaster, report finds

While these events are statistically very rare, it is worth remembering that there have been two separate events in the past twenty years in Spain where high-speed trains have derailed leading to multiple fatalities [1][2]. In contrast, the Japanese Shinkansen has a spotless record since its introduction in the 1960s [3]. Not a single fatality due to a crash or derailment. And that's in a country with a much larger population and much higher passenger count per year.

What do they do differently?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santiago_de_Compostela_derailm...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Adamuz_train_derailments

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinkansen#Safety_record

I wonder how common it is for train tracks to fracture? And what systems are in place to actually detect this. There was recently a post on a German subreddit where the OP found a fracture in the German rail[0], albeit much smaller.

0. https://old.reddit.com/r/drehscheibe/comments/1qe9ko2/ich_gl...

“…not only did Iryo train's front carriages which stayed on the track have "notches" in their wheels, but three earlier trains that went over the track earlier did too.”

This sounds like something a camera mounted on a sample of trains watching a wheel could catch.

AFAIK continuously welded tracks (like those used in high speed rail) are also slightly tensioned, so a break in a single point could make it look like a whole section of track is missing, as tension is released.

What are the some of the ways that tracks are monitored for fractures like this? It must have been pretty substantial in order to be described as "complete lack of continuity". Makes me think of literally electronic continuity tests -- are those ever used in this context? Or how about cameras mounted on trains using image processing? Or drones?

It seems a shame that a few other trains passed beforehand with this anomaly in place and yet it went undetected.

We actually have had 4 train accidents and incidents in a week.

https://people.com/train-collides-with-crane-arm-in-4th-rail...

It's clear some of them are probably caused by neglect in maintenance, others are freak accidents.

It's pretty crazy the statistical probabilities involved for something like this.

Some more info from Spanish media. The track that broke was from 1989 and had not been maintained properly.

Wow, that's a really big gap. No wonder it derailed

My gut feeling says a lot of fatalities could have been prevented with a physical barrier between both tracks. Shouldn't this be mandatory with high speed trains?

Quite a tragedy.

Spain needs to rethink the way it operates trains. I think Switzerland handles this better, overall, though they probably also don't have as many fast trains because there are so many mountains. But I refer more to the intrinsic quality control and assumption made. If I recall correctly in Spain, there was the other train also coming in. I am sure they could have built the tracks differently. Granted, the issue here is cost, and an attempt to keep the cost down, but if you then accept disasters like that, it seems really awkward to me to want to save money here. And now that we know the track was already damaged, that just adds more validity to questioning whether the quality control systems were overall proper.