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Spain said on Friday it is reviewing its railway network to boost safety after a train derailed last month killing 79 people, the country’s deadliest train disaster in decades.
“Everything is under review and subject to proposals for improvement,” Public Works Minister Ana Pastor told a parliamentary panel about the July 24 crash.

The eight carriage train was hurtling around a bend at 179 kph, more than twice the speed limit, when it flew off the tracks near the northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela, according to its data recording “black boxes”.

	We are committed to finding out what caused the accident and we will continue to improve the safety of the Spanish rail system

	Julio Gomez-Pomar, Renfe
The driver, 52-year-old Francisco Jose Garzon Amo, was on the telephone to the on-board conductor and stopped speaking just 11 seconds before the train flew off the tracks and ploughed into a concrete siding, coming to rest in a mangled heap.
Garzon has been provisionally charged with 79 counts of reckless homicide. He has been released under court supervision while the investigation into the crash continues.
The government will reevaluate the speed limits and signalling systems in place throughout the railway network and will look at changing the rules on the use of the telephone by train employees as part of the review, the minister said.
It will also study the possibility of installing a satellite system on trains that would reinforce the signalling system, she added.
Spain has invested heavily in rail links over the past decade and it now has the second-largest high-speed train network in the world, spanning 3,100 kilometres. Only China’s is larger.
The country’s railway network combines these high-speed lines, which use sophisticated safety systems that automatically brake speeding trains, with conventional tracks which employ less rigorous automatic braking systems.
Railway officials say the section of the track where the train crashed was a conventional line that used a less sophisticated safety system that stops trains only if they are travelling at over 200 kph.
The president of state train company Renfe, Julio Gomez-Pomar, told the parliamentary panel on Thursday that the crew had not reported any problems with the train before the crash.
“We are committed to finding out what caused the accident and we will continue to improve the safety of the Spanish rail system,” he said.
Gomez-Pomar appeared before the panel along with Gonzalo Ferre, the president of Adif, the company in charge of Spain’s rail infrastructure.
“The Spanish rail system is considered one of the best in the world and it’s up to us to ensure that it continues to be. Safety is under constant review,” Ferre told the panel.
The accident occurred just as Spain is bidding for a contract worth US$16.4 billion for a high-speed rail network in Brazil linking the cities of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Campinas which will be awarded in September.
Nine foreigners, including two Americans, were among the 79 people who died in the disaster.
Many aboard the train were Catholic pilgrims heading for Santiago de Compostela’s internationally celebrated annual festival honouring St James, a disciple of Jesus whose bones are said to rest in a crypt beneath the altar of the city’s cathedral.
It was Spain’s deadliest rail accident since 1944 when hundreds of people were killed in a train collision, also between Madrid and Galicia. In 1972, 77 people died when a train derailed between Cadiz and Seville.


Spanish train collision, at least 150 injured

Spain orders review of rail safety after deadly crash 

Black box data confirms that Spanish train was running too fast

Spanish train driver 'talking on phone' at time of crash

Santiago de Compostela train crash

Spain's Public Works minister Ana Pastor (centre) delivers a speech about Spain's railway network during a parliamentary commission in Madrid on Friday. Photo: AFP

Spanish examining magistrate Luis Alaez (left) and several court workers check coaches, at a depot in Padron, northwestern Spain, on Wednesday, which were destroyed in the train accident in Santiago de Compostela on July 24. Photo: EPA

Probe of deadly Spain crash focuses on train speed

Rescuers work at the site where the train crashed. Photo: Xinhua

A woman looks up at flowers placed on the bridge over the railway where the train derailed. Photo: EPA

Relatives of one of the victims of the train crash comfort each other. Photo: Reuters

Spain in mourning after Galicia rail disaster claims 78 lives 

Rail workers inspect the tracks at the site of a train crash near Santiago de Compostela. Photo: Reuters

A local resident and a policeman help a survivor after he was rescued from the crumpled mess of carriages just outside the Santiago de Compostela station.Photo: Xinhua

A crane removes one of the eight derailed carriages (left); Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy (centre) and other officials visit the crash site yesterday. The train had come from Madrid. Photo: AFP

An aerial view of Spain's worst train crash since 1944. Photo: AFP

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoyand other officials visit the crash site yesterday. The train had come from Madrid. Photo: EPA

Driver faces probe after 80 killed in Spain train crash

The train was travelling from Madrid to Ferrol on the Galician coast when it derailed. Photo: Xinhua

A wounded victim sits next to wreckage as rescue workers continue searching for victims. Photo: Reuters

A crane removes a derailed train's car at the site of a train accident near the city of Santiago de Compostela on Thursday. Photo: AFP 

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy (centre), Public Works Minister Ana Pastor (right) and Galicia's Regional President Alberto Nunez Feijoo (left) visit the scene. Photo: EPA

A train travelling from Madrid to Ferrol which was derailed close to Santiago de Compostela, Galicia. Photo: EPA

Rescue workers pull victims from a train crash near Santiago de Compostela, northwestern Spain. Photo: Reuters

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Spain said on Friday it is reviewing its railway network to boost safety after a train derailed last month killing 79 people, the country’s deadliest train disaster in decades.
