Train drivers strike in Spain after 115 killed in two crashes this year

Train drivers across Spain walked off the job on Tuesday, causing widespread travel disruption as they demanded more investment in maintenance and safety in a strike that follows the country's second fatal rail crash this year.It follows last week’s announcement that Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez had appointed his deputy, Carlos Cuerpo, to provisionally run the Transport Ministry after Oscar Puente resigned over the two crashes on the same high-speed Madrid-Seville line this year, which killed a combined 115 people.About 40 per cent of long- and medium-distance services were cancelled, affecting 4,042 passengers, state train operator Renfe said.In Madrid, 90 per cent of services on the capital's commuter network were cancelled, while 50 per cent of Barcelona's local services did not run.Spain's Pedro Sanchez speaks at the command post following the collision of two high-speed trains (Reuters)"This is chaos," Candida Hiciano, 60, said as she tried to catch a train at Madrid's Atocha station. "Anyway, we're going to try to get to work come what may."Commuters in Leganes, near Madrid, had to take buses to reach the city centre.At least five lines on the city's local commuter train network were not operating, and another three had partial service, according to state operator Cercanias.The crash in Toledo was Spain’s second high profile fatal train crash this year (AFP/Getty)In the Catalonia region, operator Rodalies said trains were running late due to non-compliance with requirements for a minimum service.At Masnou station, on the outskirts of Barcelona, just a few people could be seen waiting for the intermittent service.Train drivers' union Semaf said its drivers were respecting the minimum service quotas established by the government.The union added that delays were caused by poor management of the programmed trains.Earlier safety talks abandoned, union saysTalks with the government to improve safety on Spain's high-speed network, Europe's most extensive, began after a crash in southern Spain in January that killed 46 people, but were abandoned in April, according to the train drivers' union.The second collision last month occurred after a controller ordered a train operated by state-owned Renfe to continue following a signal failure, even though there was a stationary Iryo-operated train further ahead on the same line, according to Puente.The government approved a series of safety measures on Tuesday, including a clarification of how the time drivers spend operating a train is calculated.Emergency services and investigators on the scene of the January train crash in southern Spain (AFP/Getty)It also created an ombudsman position for victims of public transport accidents.It said it would improve channels for railway staff to communicate safety concerns, as well as giving staff more autonomy to take decisions such as stopping or not restarting a train if they detect a risk in doing so.King Felipe VI and his wife Letizia were set to join relatives of the victims of last month's crash, in which 69 people died, at a funeral in Toledo's cathedral in central Spain later on Tuesday.A 16th-century effigy of Christ was set to be moved from the town of Urda near the crash site to Toledo for the service, Toledo's archdiocese said in an online statement.