MADRID, Spain — Spain's Transport Minister Óscar Puente has announced his resignation following a train collision near Urda on October 28 that killed 69 people and injured dozens more.

Puente announced his decision on Tuesday, November 3, after appearing before Congress to answer questions about the disaster and outline measures aimed at improving railway safety.

"A transport minister in a country like Spain cannot remain in office after two accidents of this seriousness in less than a year," he told lawmakers, referring to the October collision and a separate train disaster in January that killed 46 people.

He also confirmed that he would withdraw his name from the Socialist Party's candidate lists for the November 29 general election.

Puente said he had made the decision to step down shortly after the October crash but had remained in office to help manage its aftermath and address immediate safety concerns.

Political pressure mounted after the crash.

Calls for Puente to resign intensified in the days following the October 28 collision.

The conservative People's Party (PP) and far-right Vox led demands for his departure, joined by some parties that support the government.

Opposition politicians questioned the government's handling of railway safety and criticised Puente's earlier comments suggesting that human error may have contributed to the crash. They argued that his remarks risked shifting attention away from broader concerns about the railway system.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has acknowledged the damage to public confidence in Spain's rail network, describing its credibility as "broken".

Puente's resignation comes less than four weeks before the November 29 general election, adding to the political pressure on Sánchez's Socialist-led government.

Explaining his decision, the minister described it as a matter of "political dignity", saying he could not remain in office after two serious rail disasters within a year.

How the Urda collision happened

The October 28 collision involved two high-speed trains operated by separate companies: state-owned Renfe and private operator Iryo.

The Renfe train, which was carrying 397 passengers, struck the rear of an Iryo train that had stopped on the track with 147 passengers on board.

The crash occurred on the Madrid-Seville high-speed railway line near Urda, in the province of Toledo. At least 69 people were killed and dozens injured.

Preliminary information points to a failure involving the railway's LZB signalling and communications system. The technical problem reportedly forced trains to stop on the affected section of the line, prompting controllers in Madrid to manage movements manually.

According to preliminary accounts, the Renfe train was subsequently given permission to continue despite the Iryo train remaining stationary further along the track.

Investigators are examining the technical failure and the decisions made by railway controllers to establish how the collision occurred.

Audio recordings raise questions about communications.

Recordings of conversations between train drivers and railway controllers, published by Spanish media, have provided further insight into the events leading up to the collision.

In one recording, a controller appears to tell the Renfe driver to continue at normal speed using an alternative signalling procedure after the technical failure.

The driver asks whether normal speed is permitted, and the controller confirms that it is.

Another recording captures the Iryo driver telling the control centre that the train is stationary and experiencing problems communicating with its onboard safety systems.

In a subsequent exchange, the driver says the train cannot be restarted because its safety system is preventing further movement.

The recordings have raised questions about how information was communicated between train drivers and railway controllers in the minutes before the crash.

However, they do not establish the full circumstances or determine who was responsible. Investigators will need to examine the recordings alongside technical data, control-centre records and other evidence before reaching conclusions.

Second deadly rail disaster in Spain this year

The October collision followed another major railway disaster in January, when a train derailed near Adamuz in southern Spain and collided with another train, killing 46 people.

The two accidents have intensified scrutiny of railway safety in Spain, including the condition of infrastructure, signalling systems and procedures for managing technical failures.

Railway authorities and the government now face mounting pressure to establish what went wrong and address public concerns about the safety of the country's high-speed network.

The investigation into the Urda collision is continuing, with particular attention on the signalling failure and the decisions made in the control centre before the crash.