Spain’s Next Rail Strike Pulls In the Private High-Speed Lines Too

Spain’s rail passengers are facing another round of disruption next week, and this one reaches further than recent stoppages. A 24-hour strike called for Tuesday, November 17, was first agreed by the works council at Adif, the state company that manages track and signalling. The CCOO union has since extended it to Renfe and to the private high-speed operators Iryo and Ouigo, and the drivers’ union Semaf has asked drivers at eight railway companies to join the same day.

A separate 24-hour stoppage at Adif has also been called for November 19, and the Railway Operations Union has registered action covering both the 17th and the 19th. That comes on top of Renfe driver strikes on November 10 and 12, and the country’s general strike on November 11. Because Adif controls the infrastructure and traffic management that every operator depends on, a walkout there can ripple across services regardless of which company sold the ticket.

The unions say the dispute is about safety. They want urgent changes to procedures, staffing and communication on the network, and CCOO argues that splitting infrastructure management from train operations has weakened coordination, particularly where several operators share the same lines. The demands follow an October 28 collision near Urda in which a Renfe AVE struck an Iryo train that had stopped on the track. Talks with the transport ministry are continuing, so the scale of the action could still change.

As of this week, no complete list of cancelled trains or confirmed minimum-service levels for November 17 had been published, so treat estimates circulating online with caution. Anyone with tickets for that Tuesday on AVE, Iryo or Ouigo routes between Madrid and Barcelona, Valencia, Seville or Málaga should check their specific train with the operator in the days beforehand. If a rail leg connects to a flight, build in a backup, such as an earlier departure or a domestic flight.

Sources: Euro Weekly News, Rus Tourism News