The tragic Adamuz accident It is the worst that Spanish high speed has suffered in its entire history, but during the last year both the AVE and the rest of the LAV services have accumulated incidents, delays and problems that have damaged its image as a 100% reliable service.
A year to forget. 2025 has chained incidents of all kinds on the high-speed network. Some of the events that have affected the operation of our trains:
All of them have been events that, for different reasons, have challenged our perception of railway capacity in Spain.
Delays and technical breakdowns. Punctuality plummeted up to levels of 70% in some months, well below the historical standards of the AVE. According to data According to El Mundo, four out of ten trains arrived late during the summer. On the other hand, technical problems forced the temporary withdrawal of part of the Avril and Avlo train fleet due to manufacturing defects, reducing available capacity just when it was needed most.
The paradox of success. Despite everything, 37.3 million people traveled on AVE trains and long distance from Renfe during 2025, according to data from the Ministry of Transport. It is an absolute record: 6% more than the previous year. The AVE reached 21.5 million passengers, while Avlo grew from 4.55 million to 6.2 million users. The Madrid-Levante-Mediterranean corridor went from 5.5 to 7.7 million passengers, and the line to Galicia and Asturias skyrocketed from 2.5 to 4.6 million. These are figures that show that we prefer the trainand you like it when it works and offers competitive prices.
Despite the figures, the incidents of recent months have given very negative publicity for high speed in Spain.
Returns that do not arrive. The recurring incidents, added to the tightening of return conditions due to delays that Renfe applied in 2024, have fueled a story of discontent. Now it takes an hour of delay to recover 50% of the ticket, when before 15 minutes were enough. In September of last year we discovered that only three out of every hundred passengers were able to claim compensation over the summer, despite millions suffering delays.
Discontent. We had never used the AVE so much and the incidents of the AVE had never had so much media attention. The competition from Ouigo and Iryo has helped boost the number of travelers thanks to lower prices, but the number of incidents has caused this gradual reduction in prices to take a backseat. And in the case of Renfe, lack of rolling stock It has not followed that growth rate either.
Issues. Minister Óscar Puente recognized in September that the system will continue to have problems for at least two more years, in reference to the rolling stock that did not arrive and visited countries such as Germany or China looking for new trains.
Meanwhile, the president of Renfe, Álvaro Fernández Heredia, assured at the end of the year that it would not apply the new compensation approved by Congress, which required money to be returned after 15 minutes of delay, considering them unconstitutional and asymmetrical compared to the competition.
And now what. The Córdoba accident has been a devastating end to a bad streak of incidents in the Spanish railway system. All railway operators now face the challenge of demonstrating to Spain that the service remains reliable and safe despite the Adamuz accident.
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