The deadly train crash in Spain’s Toledo province has some similarities with a train disaster in Córdoba province that killed more than 40 people earlier this year.
Both train collisions happened along the same high-speed rail route that runs between the capital, Madrid, and Seville, about 300 miles south.
The Toledo crash happened about 130 miles from the site of January’s train disaster near Adamuz, in Córdoba province. Following Wednesday’s crash, authorities have suspended that high-speed line linking the Madrid region with Andalusia.
Both train accidents also involved the collision of two high-speed trains, although one of the trains on Wednesday was not travelling at high speed at the time of the crash.
Spanish emergency authorities have not yet announced a precise cause of Wednesday’s crash, but they have disclosed some details. The local Castilla-La Mancha 112 emergency services told CNN they received a report of a collision at 8.45 a.m. local time. According to the reports, a train owned by the company Iryo was stationary or traveling at low speed when it was struck by a high-speed AVE train operated by Spain’s national railway company Renfe.
It appears the crash on Wednesday was a rear-end collision, authorities at the scene told CNN. The train crash earlier this year involved one train derailing and crossing onto an adjacent track, according to Spain’s public broadcaster RTVE.
For context: Spain’s train drivers’ union, Semaf, has previously raised concerns about high speeds causing vibrations and subsequent wear and tear along high-speed railway lines, a source from the union told CNN in January, in the aftermath of the crash near Adamuz.
In August 2025, the union sent a letter to the national railway operator, Adif, asking for a reduction in the maximum speed on all high-speed train lines from 300 kmph to 250 kmph, after some stretches were vibrating and placing stress on the infrastructure, the source said.
CNN’s Pau Mosquera, Tim Lister and Sophie Tanno contributed to this report.