Yesterday evening an Alvia train coming from Madrid derailed when it was arriving to Santiago. There are at least 77 deaths and most of the people travelling have been injured.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013...ain-crash-dead
http://www.lavozdegalicia.es/noticia...0721158120.htm

Today is Santiago´s day, the big festival for people from Galicia and pilgrims alike. All the festivities have been cancelled, beginning with yesterday´s "burning of the Obradoiro".

It is a most terrifying feeling ...

Rgds, Cova

Yes...terrifying... I was in Santiago de Compostela only 10 months ago. A wonderful place that somehow manages to blend "easy and relaxed" with "youthful buzz". Strolling in Alameda Park is especially delightful, and (whether you're religious or not) Sunday mass at the cathedral with all the modern-day "pilgrims" was a memorable experience. So sorry to hear about this recent tragedy. Very sad.

A terrible tragedy.

so tragic -- my thoughts are with all involved.

Very sad to hear of train crash in Santiago d C. Thoughts and prayers for families and friends of those hurt or killed.

Thanks for the link Cova. Terrible tragedy.

The news stories are terrible. It seems that almost no one on the train escaped uninjured, except the engineers, who were incredibly distraught.

Officials say they are moving away from theories that any foul play was involved. It appears that the train took a curve at 3 times the recommended speed, perhaps because it was already running late.

Or the engineer was high. Ironically we have a house guest from Vigo now.

train derailed before the curve. two systems failed in communication to train. Waiting to see why conductor did not/ could not manually correct speed before curve.. WAY before curve. Such a sad case. An unfortunate combination of several mistakes/malfunctions.

i've been sick over this since yesterday. And the irony is, today es el Dia de Santiago, the feast of St James.

Yes, cruiseluv. I have been in Santiago for this feast a couple of times before, and it has been such a shock.

The thing is, we usually feel that the train is safer than other means of transport, and this horrific accident has shown something different. But tomorrow afternoon I am getting on an Alvia, it is not stopping me.

Bye, Cova

Coa, are you in Santiago now?

There are many sad pictures of the tragedy in El Pais.

Cova one should get this accident into prospective. Terrible as it is The Spanish train system is very safe.
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anexo:A...en_Espa%C3%B1a
There is now 3 days national mourning and 7 days here in Galicia.
RENFE have now issued alternative routing for trains to and from Galicia. This information will be updated often So I will not add the details here. Please read details as they are published the following link:
http://www.renfe.com/empresa/comunic...cidencias.html

No, I´ve planned to be, but at the end I decided to stay in Madrid

Ribeira, I know it is safe. I am getting on an train tomorrow, and next weekend and also a couple of times in August. In fact, I used to fly a lot but now I get more trains, because the trip is longer but reliable. The Alvias are quite nice, with a bar and power outlets in all the seats, so it is quite comfortable (I tend to sleep a lot in train journeys ...)

Bye

This is such a fluke. The previous trains had no problems that day.

trains are now running over sections the accident. Read the link I gave above.

It seems the engineer loved speed and even posted on his FB page a picture of a train speedometer at a very high speed from another trip. Now it seems people died because of his fascination and RENFE apparently did not monitior his fetish.

<<This is such a fluke. The previous trains had no problems that day.>>

That's because the previous (and subsequent) trains had responsible engineers who didn't try to run that track section (speed limited at 50mph/80kph) at 120mph/200kph. Stupid engineer should spend the rest of his life in a cage.

One article some engineers reported this could NOT be human error. We'll have to wait and see.