The railway track breakage, which is clearly at the origin of the derailment of the Iryo train that collided with an Alvia on Sunday near Adamuz (Córdoba) leaving 45 dead and 150 injured, is a “recurring problem” in EU railway systems. This is the opinion of Transport Minister Óscar Puente, in the press conference he gave after learning the CIAF report, which points to a track defect as the origin of the accident. Along with the president of Adif, Luis Pedro Marco de la Peña, puente has worked to demonstrate that all inspections had been passed and approved, that the Adamuz section had even more inspections than usual, and that, among them, an ultrasound test was carried out on November 10 of last year capable of detecting a break or a problem in the welding that was not discovered until the derailment of a train last Sunday.
“Rail breakage is a recurring problem in European railway networks. It is a concern, obviously,” said Puente, adding that such a well-known risk means that Adif has research projects on this issue.
According to the report on the first “findings” of its inquiry into the Adamuz accident published by the Railway Accident Investigation Commission (CIAF) this Friday, the track breakage was caused perhaps by a problem in the welding that will be taken to the laboratory for analysis and that, as explained by Puente, was so imperceptible that it did not even cause a cut in the electrical current surrounding the track that would have raised an alarm that something was wrong. In contrast, among the documents shown this Friday is one from Talgo, the manufacturer of the Renfe train that passed through Adamuz at 7:09 p.m. on the day of the accident and one of the three that also presented notches on the bogies and that, although it was detected that their instability values exceeded “normal behaviour”, did not reach “warning” or “emergency” values provided in the system.
As recommended by the CIAF itself after the Angrois accident, one of the tests that could detect internal cracks or failures not visible in the rails is ultrasound, which in the case of Adamuz was carried out on November 10, in a railway section in which Puente has underlined that in recent months the number of inspections carried out “far exceeds the average of the qu
