Commuter train derails near Barcelona two days after high-speed train collision; driver dead, four badly injured

A commuter train derailed after a containment wall fell on the track due to heavy rain near the Spanish city of Barcelona, killing the driver and seriously injuring four passengers, a fire brigade official said.

The accident occurred just two days after a high-speed train collision and derailment near Adamuz in the southern Córdoba province that killed 42 people.

Claudi Gallardo, inspector at the Catalonia regional fire department, said in televised comments from the site of the crash that 37 people had been injured, four of them seriously, and the driver had died. He said all passengers had been removed from the train.

Twenty ambulances were dispatched to the site in Gelida on the outskirts of Barcelona along with 38 firefighter units, emergency services authorities said.

The suburban train derailment occurred in an area long plagued by underfunded rail services and frequent incidents.

In a separate incident on Tuesday night, traffic between Blanes and Maçanet-Massanes south of the city of Girona – also part of the Barcelona commuter rail network – was interrupted “due to a train axle coming off the track”, Spanish rail operator Adif said in a statement on X.