Spain's transport minister resigns over the Urda train crash that killed 69, the second fatal crash on his watch in ten months

Puente told Congress he had decided to resign within minutes of learning of the Urda crash, and had told only his family, keeping even the prime minister in the dark while emergency measures and the first inquiries got under way. Hours before the announcement he had publicly insisted he would not step down. He said a transport minister in a country such as Spain cannot remain in his post after two accidents of this gravity in less than a year, whether or not he bears direct responsibility for them. He also withdrew from his party's list for the general election on November 29. Sanchez praised the resignation as an act of dignity and said on Wednesday that Carlos Cuerpo, his first deputy prime minister, will run the transport ministry provisionally.

The crash happened on October 28 on the Madrid to Seville high speed line, near the village of Urda, about 130 kilometres south of Madrid. An automatic safety system failure had halted trains along a 63 kilometre stretch of track. A control centre nevertheless authorised a state run Renfe AVE train to resume its journey, and it travelled about 25 kilometres at more than 160 kilometres an hour before it ran into the back of a stationary train operated by the private company Iryo. Investigators have put the impact speed at between 160 and 200 kilometres an hour. They have not established the direct cause of the collision.

Spanish authorities said on Monday that all 69 of the dead have been identified: 54 Spanish citizens and 15 foreigners, four of them from the United States, two Australians, two Japanese, and one each from Argentina, Canada, France, Mexico, Portugal, Tunisia and the Czech Republic. About 200 people were injured. The government has approved 30 million euros in aid for the victims and their families, including advance payments on compensation.

The resignation closes a year that broke Spain's confidence in the railway system it built its modern reputation on. The Urda crash came nine months after a derailment near Adamuz, in Cordoba province, killed 46 people in January. The two accidents together killed 115 people. Puente had refused to resign after Adamuz, saying he bore no responsibility for it. After Urda, he stayed long enough to set out the first compensation and safety steps, and then he went.