Spain’s deadly train crashes have damaged public confidence in the system

Pedro Sánchez and his socialist-led coalition government are racing to rebuild trust ahead of a snap election, but the task they face is immense • Don’t get This Is Europe delivered to your inbox? Sign up here A week ago today, for the second time in nine months, I got in my car and drove south from Madrid to cover a deadly train crash. At 8.53am last Wednesday, a high-speed train operated by Spain’s state-owned rail company, Renfe, smashed into the back of a stationary train run by the private rail company Iryo, on the outskirts of the small town of Urda in Castilla-La Mancha. Sixty-nine…