Spain records third train crash in a week as passenger service hits crane in Cartagena

Spain has been shaken by yet another railway incident in a week of multiple train crashes, with a commuter service colliding with a construction crane near Cartagena in the southeastern Murcia region on Thursday, according to authorities. The collision was the third serious rail accident to make headlines in less than five days.

“The train has not overturned or derailed,” a spokesperson for Murcia’s emergency services said. However, several people suffered minor injuries in the incident, which has further intensified scrutiny of Spain’s rail safety systems.

The regional train, operating on the narrow-gauge Cartagena–Los Nietos line, struck the arm of a crane midday near the Alumbres area as it travelled from Cartagena toward Los Nietos. Emergency services reported that responders treated passengers for cuts, bruises and shock at the scene. Traffic on the line was briefly suspended while inspections were carried out, before services later resumed.

Spanish rail infrastructure manager Adif said the incident was caused by the “encroachment into the infrastructure’s clearance by a crane unrelated to railway operations,” emphasising that the construction vehicle was not part of rail work. Officials have not yet explained how the crane came to encroach on the railway’s safety zone, and investigations are ongoing. 

Línea de ancho métrico Cartagena-Los Nietos: Se encuentra interrumpida la circulación por la invasión del gálibo de la infraestructura por una grúa ajena a la explotación ferroviaria.

— INFOAdif (@InfoAdif) January 22, 2026

Thursday’s crash follows a deadly high-speed collision near Adamuz in the southern province of Córdoba on Sunday, in which at least 45 people were killed and more than 150 injured, marking Spain’s worst rail disaster in over a decade. Two days after that crash, a regional train derailed near Barcelona after a retaining wall collapsed onto the tracks, killing the driver and leaving dozens of passengers injured. 

The cluster of accidents has rattled public confidence in Spanish railways and prompted the country’s main train drivers’ union, SEMAF, to announce a three-day nationwide strike from 9 to 11 February, demanding urgent safety improvements. Union leaders have called the recent tragedies a “turning point” and have said they will pursue criminal liability against those responsible for ensuring rail infrastructure safety. 

Transport Minister Óscar Puente took to social media after Thursday’s crash to downplay any suggestion of systemic failure, stressing that the accident was unrelated to train operations: “It is advisable to report it correctly to avoid misleading. A public lighting basket-crane vehicle from Cartagena has encroached with its arm into the public railway domain, striking the windows of a metric-gauge train that was passing by at that moment.”

Conviene que se informe correctamente para no inducir a error. Un vehículo cesta-grúa de alumbrado público de Cartagena ha invadido con su brazo el dominio público ferroviario golpeando las ventanas de un tren de ancho métrico que pasaba en ese momento. pic.twitter.com/aGJAISBZXK

— Óscar Puente (@oscar_puente_) January 22, 2026

However, the proximity of the collision to a busy commuter line and its timing amid a string of rail disasters have raised questions about coordination between construction crews and rail authorities, as well as about oversight of active trackside work.