The driver made a mistake; a terrible one and dozens of people died, but was the only mistake his? The answer is probably no. View the following clip of the accident.
The fast-train track between Ourense y Santiago de Compostela in Galicia was, in its day, proclaimed the most advanced section of AVE (high-speed train) in the country but is going to be downgraded to mere ‘regional-fast-train’ use. Along 80 kms of its 87.5 track it has the modern ERTMS installed (European Rail Traffic Management System) but along the last 7.5 kms is has an old analogical system first put into place half a century ago; in other words, along the most dangerous section of the track, precisely where the accident occurred.
ADIF, the state-owned company, whose task it is to maintain the country’s railway infrastructure, recognises that those 7.5 kms only uses the old Asfa Analogical system despite the Government pumping 163m euros into installing the European safety system on the AVE tracks. ADIF recognises that on the six passenger trains that use that route every day at least five of them (four Avant and one Alvia) have ERTMS equipment on board yet they still use the old system on this route.
In other words, they have the system on board and it is installed along the majority of the said track, but they don’t use it.
It is all the more surprising when you consider that these fast trains are capable of reaching 250 kph and the only system really capable of controlling such high-speed traffic is the unused ERTMS, because the older system can only be used on trains up to 200 kph. What the new system (ERTMS1) can do that the old system cannot is supervise and control the speed of the train independently of the driver’s decisions…
Now, when the ERTMS was installed the project did not contemplate the last section; i.e., it was a deliberate decision. Where is the logic that 80 kms of straight, full visibility track has a better safety system than the 7.5 km that includes a tunnel and a pronounced bend as it enters the city? Furthermore, even though the system is installed, costing almost 164m euros, why is it not in use?
Since the accident, rapid moves are being made to downgrade the track from AVE to just ‘fast train’ perhaps so as not to ‘contaminate’ the AVE system – the confidence of AVE passengers will be shaken, but if the accident didn’t occur to an AVE train…
But can you just downgrade an AVE track because of an accident that was allegedly provoked by a driver’s mistake and the questionable decision not to use an installed system and extend it the installations a mere 7.5 kph after already having spent 163.9 on the new system? Owing to the terrain, the line cost 21.4m euros per kilometre to built, with its 35 bridges and 31 tunnels – a total of 27.5 km of the 87.5 km of track is through tunnels… just to make it an AVE-class track.
Finally, one of the things that made the track so expensive was the curve radius of 6,000 metres; in other words any bends of the track were carried out over six kilometres so that the bends would be slight, yet the bend where the accident happened had a curve radius of just 500m, making it most acute bend on the track, because of the city outskirts – yet precisely there, there was no adequate safety system.
Coming out of the last tunnel at 200 kph a driver would have to reduce speed to just 80 kph. One version of what happened is that the driver forgot what tunnel he was coming out of – a moment of confusion; a confusion that would have been irrelevant had the new system. been in place and working.
So, we ask you, was it only the driver’s fault?
Update: It now appears that up to just eleven seconds before the accident the ticket collector on the train had been on the intercom with the driver concerning a family that wanted to get off – a routine affair. The call lasted just under two minutes but was only cut short by the driver as he heard the second alarm warning (he had missed the first because of the call) and hit the brakes, doing just over 170 – a distance and speed that made it impossible to avoid the crash.
(News: Galicia, Spain)