马德里——周三上午8时30分，行驶在马德里-塞维利亚高速铁路线上的六列火车被迫停运。一套信号系统发生故障，这是西班牙庞大、建成数十年的高铁网络常见的问题。由Iryo公司运营、载有147名乘客的一列火车停在一片杏树林旁，司机等待控制中心的进一步指示。在其后约15英里（约24公里）处，另一列由国家铁路公司Renfe运营的高速列车正在等候。
MADRID—On Wednesday morning at 8:30 a.m., six trains traveling on the Madrid-Seville high-speed line were forced to a halt.A signaling system had failed, a common problem in Spain’s sprawling, decades-old bullet-train network. A train operated by the company Iryo, carrying 147 passengers, stopped by an almond grove, its driver awaiting further instructions from a control center. Waiting some 15 miles behind was another high-speed train, this one managed by national rail company Renfe.
上午8时36分，一名调度员向Renfe列车发出绿灯信号，允许其以全速恢复行驶，尽管Iryo列车仍停滞在前方轨道上。约15分钟后，两列火车相撞，造成至少69人死亡、数十人受伤，成为现代欧洲历史上最致命的铁路惨剧之一。
At 8:36 a.m., an operator gave the Renfe train a green light to resume travel at full speed, even though the Iryo train remained stationary farther down the track. The trains collided around 15 minutes later, killing at least 69 people and injuring dozens in one of the deadliest rail tragedies in modern European history.
这并非孤立事件。在同一线路上，1月份发生断轨，导致一列开往马德里的列车脱轨并与对向来车相撞，造成46人死亡。虽然起因不同，但这两起事故暴露出西班牙铁路安全体系更深层、系统性的缺陷，自网络快速扩张的繁荣期过后，现代化和维护投资便出现滑坡。
It wasn’t an isolated incident. On the same line in January, a broken track caused a Madrid-bound train to derail and collide with a train traveling in the opposite direction, leaving 46 people dead. Though different in cause, the two accidents reveal deeper, systemic shortcomings in Spain’s rail safety systems, where investment in modernization and maintenance have drifted since the boom years that saw its networks quickly expand.
西班牙社会党政府目前面临压力，须解释为何同一条高速铁路线在不到一年内接连发生两起毁灭性事故。随着大选临近，铁路安全突然成为竞选议题，外界质疑总理佩德罗·桑切斯政府是否未能从第一起事故中吸取任何教训。在11月29日投票前的大多数民意调查中领跑的保守党人民党领袖阿尔韦托·努涅斯·费霍呼吁对铁路网络进行彻底、独立的审查，称这早就该做了。他说：“西班牙有权知道其基础设施究竟发生了什么。”
Spain’s socialist government is now under pressure to explain how the same high-speed rail line produced two devastating crashes in less than a year. With general elections around the corner, rail safety has suddenly emerged as a campaign issue, with questions swirling as to whether the government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez failed to learn any lessons from the first accident. Alberto Núñez Feijóo, whose conservative People’s party leads most opinion polls ahead of the Nov. 29 vote, called for a complete, independent review of the railroad network, saying it is long overdue. “Spain has the right to know what is going on with its infrastructure,” he said.
遇难者中包括一名来自他所在政党的前劳工部长。桑切斯承诺调查事故原因。“很明显，我们必须进一步加强安全，因为这类悲剧不能在像我们这样的国家里不断发生。”
The victims include a former labor minister from his party. Sánchez pledged to investigate the causes of the crash. “It is clear that we have to further increase security, because this kind of tragedy can’t keep happening in a country like ours.”
与其他欧洲国家一样，西班牙从20世纪90年代开始建设高铁，并在21世纪初加快扩建。西班牙——国土面积比得克萨斯州还小——如今拥有世界上最大的高铁网络之一。拥有超过1880英里（约3025公里）的轨道，其规模仅次于中国。
Like other European countries, Spain built up its high-speed railroads starting in the 1990s, expanding them in the early 2000s. Spain—a country smaller in land area than Texas—now has one of the largest high-speed rail networks in the world. With over 1,880 miles of track, it is second only to China.
许多国家难以继续为铁路线路的维护和升级提供资金，该领域的投资近年来基本持平。在西班牙，高铁网络的延误变得更长、更常见。国营铁路公司2024年修改了赔偿规则，现在只有延误超过90分钟才提供全额退款，而过去是30分钟。
Many have struggled to continue funding the maintenance and upgrades of railroad lines, with investment in the sector staying relatively flat in recent years. In Spain, delays on the high-speed network have become longer and more common. The state-run railroad company in 2024 changed its compensation rules and now offers a full refund only if the delay exceeds 90 minutes, compared with 30 minutes in the past.
周三的碰撞事故发生在西班牙最古老的高铁线路上，该线路连接马德里和南部的塞维利亚。
Wednesday’s collision occurred on Spain’s oldest high-speed line, which connects Madrid to Seville in the south.
该线路于1992年开通，使用被称为LZB的旧式信号技术，依赖物理电缆，正日益过时。它容易故障且难以维修，因为替换零件和专业工程师短缺。LZB已逐步被更新的信号系统取代，马德里-塞维利亚线路的这一升级工程正在进行中。
Opened in 1992, that line uses old signaling technology known as LZB, which relies on a physical cable and is becoming increasingly obsolete. It is prone to breakdowns and difficult to fix, as replacement parts and specialized engineers are in short supply. LZB has been gradually replaced with a newer signaling system, an upgrade that was under way in the Madrid-Seville line.
事故发生前几周，Iryo首席执行官法布里齐奥·法瓦拉曾向西班牙议员表示，旧信号系统的故障是该线路的主要问题，经常导致列车长时间停运。
Weeks before the crash, the chief executive of Iryo, Fabrizio Favara, told Spanish lawmakers that outages in the old signaling system were the main problem on the line, frequently causing trains to stop for long stretches.“The most frequent issue, apart from extraordinary events such as a fire, is related to the LZB signaling system,” he told the Spanish Senate during a hearing about the January crash.
“除火灾等特殊事件外，最常见的问题与LZB信号系统有关，”他在关于1月事故的参议院听证会上表示。现有多层安全系统旨在防止碰撞。
There are several layers of safety systems in place to prevent a collision.
当信号系统失效时，列车停运，调度员接管指挥。如果信号系统未完全恢复运行，列车本应以降低速度行驶。但在周三并非如此。
When signaling systems fail, trains stop and traffic controllers take over. If the signaling system isn’t fully operational, trains are supposed to travel at lower speeds. That wasn’t the case on Wednesday.
上午8点36分，一名控制中心操作员告诉Renfe列车司机，可以恢复行程，且不受速度限制。“继续行程，并在[LZB]模式下以正常速度行驶，”据西班牙《国家报》发布的一段对话录音显示，该操作员对Renfe司机说道。
At 8:36, a control center operator told the Renfe train driver he could resume its journey with no speed restrictions. “Continue your journey and proceed under [LZB], at normal speed,” the operator told the Renfe driver, according to a recording of the conversation published by the Spanish daily El Pais.
这趟载有约400人的Renfe列车沿轨道行驶了约17分钟，时速达到146英里（约235公里），随后刹车并撞上了前方Iryo列车的尾部。
The Renfe train, carrying around 400 people, traveled down the tracks for around 17 minutes, reaching 146 mph before braking and crashing into the rear of the Iryo train.
交通部长奥斯卡·普恩特将大部分责任归咎于他所称的操作员“令人费解”的决定，即允许Renfe列车恢复行驶。但批评者表示，首先就不应存在这种人为失误的空间。
Transport Minister Óscar Puente pinned much of the blame on what he described as the “inexplicable” decision of the operator to allow the Renfe train to resume travel. But critics say there should be no such room for human error in the first place.“There should be processes in place to prevent any one individual from putting hundreds of lives in danger,” says Gareth Dennis, a railroad engineer and author.
“应该有流程防止任何单个个体将数百人的生命置于险境，”铁路工程师、作家加雷斯·丹尼斯表示。在他看来，一年内发生两起重大事故说明存在更深层的问题。
For him, two large crashes in one year speak to a bigger problem.“It’s not a coincidence. For massive events like this to happen it doesn’t matter if the cause is different,” said Dennis, who has written a book on the future of railroads.
“这不是巧合。对于这类重大事件而言，原因是否不同并不重要，”撰写过铁路未来著作的丹尼斯说。“同一线路发生两起致命事故，表明西班牙铁路系统存在管理失职。”
“To have two fatal crashes on the same line suggests there are management failings on the railways system in Spain.”Write to Margherita Stancati at margherita.stancati@wsj.com