The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) has opened a second investigation into possible fraud involving EU funds for the Madrid-Seville high-speed rail line, the corridor where two deadly crashes have killed 115 people in nine months. Investigators raided offices in Madrid on Friday, 6 November.
The EPPO said it is conducting investigative measures at the Administrator of Railway Infrastructure (ADIF), the State Railway Safety Agency (AESF) and the Court of Auditors in Spain, supported by the Guardia Civil’s Central Operational Unit (UCO). The investigation, opened on the EPPO’s own initiative, concerns possible fraud affecting EU funds allocated to renovating and upgrading safety, signalling and communications systems on the line where the Urda crash happened on 28 October.
Two crashes on the same line
The Urda crash, near Toledo, killed 69 people when a Renfe AVE train ran into the back of a stationary Iryo train after the LZB safety system failed. Barely nine months earlier, on 18 January, another crash near Adamuz in Andalusia killed 46 people on the same line. In September 2021, ADIF awarded three contracts worth more than 136 million euros to renew signalling, telecommunications, train protection, track circuits and switches on the line.
The EPPO said it had already opened an investigation in March 2026 into possible fraud in EU funds for maintaining the track near Adamuz. Brussels granted 111.6 million euros from its regional development fund in June 2024 to upgrade the line. The new investigation is a separate case, and the EPPO said no further details would be made public at this stage.
No link established to the crashes
The fraud investigations are independent of the judicial inquiries into the causes of both accidents, and for the moment there is no conclusion linking possible economic irregularities to the tragedies, according to Spanish reporting. The Urda case is being handled by a court in Orgaz, Toledo, while the Adamuz case sits with a court in Montoro, Cordoba. A technical inquiry by Spain’s rail accident investigation authority is also under way.
Spain’s transport minister quit earlier this week over the crashes, and the drivers’ union Semaf still has strikes called at Renfe for 10 and 12 November.
Related coverage: Spain Transport Minister Quits Over Deadly Train Crashes
Sources: EPPO official statement (6 Nov 2026); Democrata (6 Nov 2026); Continental Patriot (4 Nov 2026); RussPain on the Orgaz court investigation (2 Nov 2026).
