Madrid, Jan 21, (dpa/GNA) – Spain has reduced the maximum speed for trains on the main line between Madrid and Barcelona after the serious train accident in the south of the country, network operator Adif said on Tuesday.
For now, high-speed trains may travel at only 160 kilometres per hour instead of 300km/h on a 150-kilometre section.
Train drivers had reported unevenness in the rails, which is to be examined overnight.
According to media reports, some drivers on the route had already voluntarily slowed on Monday to express dissatisfaction with the state of the tracks.
The normal two-and-a-half hour journey of more than 650 kilometres between the two cities increases by at least about 30 minutes under the Adif restriction, the Spanish newspapers La Vanguardia and El País reported.
At least 41 people were killed and dozens injured in Sunday’s train accident in Andalusia, where two high-speed trains collided near the municipality of Adamuz north-east of Córdoba.
As a possible cause of one of the worst train accidents in the country’s history, Transport Minister Óscar Puente said a track defect or a fault on one of the trains could not be ruled out. But “all hypotheses remain open,” he said.
GNA