Spain Closes High-Speed Rail Network in South After Crash

A Swath of Spain’s High-Speed Rail Network Will Be Closed on MondayThe closures were announced after a high-speed train derailed and smashed into another high-speed train, killing at least 39 people and injuring dozens.Passengers at a train station in Madrid on Sunday, after the train derailment in southern Spain.Credit...Carlos Luján/Europa Press, via Associated PressJan. 19, 2026, 2:39 a.m. ETHigh-speed train service between Madrid and much of southern Spain will be suspended on Monday, a significant closure of one of the world’s largest and most efficient rail networks.The closures were announced after a high-speed train derailed and smashed into another high-speed train about 25 miles from the city of Córdoba on Sunday evening, killing at least 39 people and injuring dozens of others. The first train was traveling to Madrid from Málaga, on Spain’s southern coast, with about 300 people. The second was bound for the southern city of Huelva, west of Seville.Services between Madrid and Córdoba, Seville, Málaga and Huelva will be suspended through Monday, Spain’s railway infrastructure operator, Adif, said on social media. Service between Madrid and Cádiz, Algeciras, and Granada will also be affected.Spain has over 1,684 miles of high-speed track, the most behind China, according to the International Union of Railways.About 40 million passengers use Spain’s high speed rail network every year, and the network’s average speeds rival those of global leaders like Japan and France, according to Renfe, the state-owned rail operator.For decades, Renfe dominated Spain’s high speed rail network. That began to change in recent years as private companies like Iryo and Ouigo, a subsidiary of the French national railway company, entered the market.The first train that derailed on Sunday was operated by Iryo, whose majority shareholder is Italy’s state owned railway company. It smashed into a Renfe train.Iryo ran its first high-speed train in November 2022 and began with services between Madrid, Zaragoza and Barcelona. In 2023, it expanded to Spain’s south.The company is operated by a consortium in which Ferrovie Dello Stato, Italy’s state-owned rail operator, holds the controlling stake, according to Ferrovie Dello Stato’s website. Its other stakeholders are Air Nostrum, a Spanish regional airline based in Valencia, and Globalvia, a Spanish transport infrastructure company.Iryo describes itself on its website as Spain’s first private high-speed rail company.Yan Zhuang is a Times reporter in Seoul who covers breaking news.SKIP