The Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, will request to appear at his own request before the Permanent Deputation of the Congress to explain the Urda railway accident, in Toledo. His team announced the initiative this Thursday afternoon, a day after the collision between a Renfe AVE and an Iryo train that has left at least 69 dead.
Puente will also offer a new press conference this Friday morning, according to sources from his team. The objective will be "to continue informing with maximum transparency about this railway accident," they said. This intervention will allow updating the information that Transportes handles about the incident.
The parliamentary request will be addressed to the Permanent Deputation, the body that remains constituted when the Cortes are dissolved, as is currently the case due to the general elections on November 29. The minister's team's announcement does not yet specify a date for this appearance.
The accident occurred on Wednesday morning, when an AVE traveling to Seville hit an Iryo stopped on the same track from behind, near Urda station. The death toll rose to 69 this Thursday, as reported by the president of Castilla-La Mancha, Emiliano García-Page, after the emergency coordination meeting.
In his initial explanations, Puente indicated that a breakdown of the LZB safety system had caused several trains to stop. The minister described the subsequent authorization from the Adif control center in Atocha for the AVE to resume normal operation, despite the Iryo still being ahead, as "inexplicable". This explanation is preliminary and the causes and responsibilities of the collision are still under investigation.
Frente Amplio, ERC and Podemos had already requested his appearance
The announcement from Transportes comes after the Sumar parliamentary group, at the request of Frente Amplio, registered a petition for Puente to give explanations. The coalition's candidate for President of the Government, Ada Colau, had demanded this appearance during the morning. "In these painful moments, transparency is more necessary than ever, and all necessary explanations must be given," she wrote on X.
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ERC and Podemos have also submitted a joint request for an urgent appearance, signed by Gabriel Rufián and Ione Belarra, for the minister to report on the data the Government has regarding the accident. The two parliamentary initiatives precede the announcement of Puente's own request.
For his part, the president of the Popular Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, demanded political responsibilities this Thursday in Urda without waiting for the investigations to conclude. The opposition leader has not specified what decisions he demands or who should adopt them, although he maintains that these responsibilities are already demandable.
Puente already appeared before the media on Wednesday from Adif's control center in Atocha. Asked then about a possible resignation, he ruled it out and placed his priority on clarifying what happened. "At this moment I am thinking about clarifying this and trying to resolve it," he stated.
