Spain: High-Speed Rail Ridership Falls 21% in Q1 2026 After Adamuz Crash and Storm Disruption

Spain's commercial high-speed rail operators carried 8.05 million passengers in the first quarter of 2026, a 21% decline from the same period in 2025 -- the first year-on-year drop in high-speed ridership since the pandemic, according to an official quarterly report published by competition authority CNMC on 29 June 2026.

CNMC attributed the decline to "los cortes de via, las limitaciones de velocidad y la reduccion de circulaciones" (track closures, speed restrictions and reduced service frequency) following network incidents, chief among them the fatal collision between an Iryo service and a Renfe Alvia train near Adamuz, in Cordoba province, on 18 January 2026, which disrupted the Madrid-Seville line for weeks. RailwayPro, reporting on the same CNMC data, said a landslide near Alora and speed restrictions on the Madrid-Barcelona corridor also contributed to the disruption.

The impact varied sharply by route: the Madrid-Malaga/Granada corridor saw ridership plunge 61%, Madrid-Seville fell 27%, Madrid-Barcelona declined 17%, and Madrid-Valencia and Madrid-Alicante each fell by single digits. CNMC said conventional medium-distance services fell 32%, Media Distancia Alta Velocidad services fell 15% and commuter (Cercanias) traffic was down 14% over the same period. Freight net tonne-kilometres fell 13%, dropping to pandemic-era lows.

Juan Diego Pedrero, secretary general of the AEFP operators' association, said many rail operators are in "survival mode" and consider 2026 "all but a lost year" for business development, RailwayPro reported. Post-liberalisation high-speed fares remain 33-42% below pre-competition levels even as ridership has fallen.