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A comment on Spanish track was fractured before high-speed train disaster, report finds. Parent comment

Re:Spanish track was fractured before high-speed train disas... by david-gpu on Sunday January 25, 2026 @03:43PM (#46757990)
From the linked article:

> [The] stretch of track that was renovated last May and inspected on January 7.

The track had been inspected very recently. Maybe the inspection standards are inadequate?

The linked article also shows figures that are quite meaningless without context.

> [The] vast majority [of Spain's high-speed rail budget] went to new infrastructure with only some 16% earmarked for maintenance, renewal and upgrades. That compares with between 34% to 39% spent by France, Germany and Italy,

They simply can't compare those numbers as-is. Of course Spain will be spending less in maintenance as a percentage of the total budget if it's still mainly building new tracks. It's not a useful figure.

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Re:Spanish track was fractured before high-speed train disas... by anon7000 on Sunday January 25, 2026 @03:46PM (#46758015)
Yep, plus their network is pretty new anyways. Which generally needs less maintenance than older infrastructure.
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Re:Spanish track was fractured before high-speed train disas... by pixl97 on Sunday January 25, 2026 @07:31PM (#46760258)
Just because something is new, doesn't mean it's full of faults.
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Re:Spanish track was fractured before high-speed train disas... by imiric on Sunday January 25, 2026 @06:10PM (#46759601)
> The track had been inspected very recently. Maybe the inspection standards are inadequate?

Spanish officials are very good at deflecting blame and playing politics. Nobody wants to be held accountable for a catastrophe. Also see the 2024 floods in Valencia; a partially preventable tragedy, followed by a whole lot of mud slinging, but zero accountability.

So while inspection standards might be inadequate, I would take anything a senior official says with a pound of salt.

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Re:Spanish track was fractured before high-speed train disas... by db48x on Sunday January 25, 2026 @11:22PM (#46761848)
But he is correct. If you have a large enough budget for new construction it can make any maintenance expenditure look tiny. The right figures to compare are normalized by length and age of track, not percentages of the total budget.
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Re:Spanish track was fractured before high-speed train disas... by raverbashing on Monday January 26, 2026 @01:49AM (#46762585)
> 2024 floods in Valencia; a partially preventable tragedy, followed by a whole lot of mud slinging

sigh

Of course you're right

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