MADRID — A train collision that killed 45 people in southern Spain this month is piling even more political pressure on the struggling, Socialist-led government of Pedro Sánchez. Sánchez is already weaker than at any point during his eight years in power thanks to a string of corruption and sexual harassment scandals that have rocked his party over the past year. Sensing its moment to open another line of attack, the opposition is now seizing on the rail tragedy of Jan. 18 to accuse the government of neglecting vital public services. “It’s a general symptom of the fact that essential public services that depend on the government are not working,” said Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the conservative opposition People’s Party (PP). “It’s proof of their collapse. The state of the railway track reflects the state of the country.” The far-right Vox party also slammed the accident as “criminal incompetence” on the part of the government. Political analysts did not expect the political tussles over the rail disaster would be an immediate breaking point for Sánchez’s government, but noted the subject could harm the Socialists’ chances in regional elections in Aragón in the northeast of Spain in February, and in Castilla y León in the northwest in March. RAILWAY FEARS Trains are a major component of Spain’s logistical and economic infrastructure. Its high-speed network is the second-largest in the world after China, and carried some 40 million passengers over 2024, an increase of 22 percent compared with the previous year. In all, Spain’s rail network carried 549 million passengers in 2024. This month’s crash, near the town of Adamuz, was the country’s worst since 2013. A high-speed train derailed along a straight section of track and collided with an oncoming train. Investigators are focusing on a crack in the welding between an old section of track and a newer one as the potential cause of the derailment, although their probe continues. Crucially, the accident is being linked to broader fragility within the rail system, for which Sánchez’s government has to take some responsibility. Only two days after the Adamuz smash, a trainee driver died on a regional train in Catalonia after a wall collapsed onto the line near Barcelona. Several days of chaos ensued in the northeastern region as drivers demanded safety guarantees before returning to work and technical faults caused further disruption.  Safety precautions have led to temporary speed reductions on a number of high-speed routes across the country, including between Madrid and Barcelona after a crack in the track was discovered. “The challenge is not just to ensure reliable infrastructure, but also to restore Spaniards’ confidence” in the rail system, said El País national daily. POLITICAL IMPACT The sheer number of Sánchez’s allies that have been afflicted by scandals has sparked repeated speculation that his coalition, which no longer commands a stable parliamentary majority, might be about to collapse.  In November, the attorney general, Álvaro García Ortiz, was removed from office after being found guilty of leaking confidential information in a court case involving the boyfriend of a prominent right-wing politician. A number of Sánchez’s current and former allies are facing corruption probes, and some senior Socialists have been the target of sexual impropriety allegations. In November, the attorney general, Álvaro García Ortiz, was removed from office. | Fernando Sanchez/Europa Press via Getty Images Compounding all this, the rail crisis has now handed critics a different kind of ammunition against the government. “There is now a line of attack against the government which is not directly linked to either its alliances with [Catalan and Basque] pro-independence parties or corruption,” said Pablo Simón, a political scientist at Carlos III University. “It’s the idea that the government is not able to adequately manage public services under its remit.” The opposition zeroed in on that same weakness last year after an energy blackout hit the country for several hours in April. Much of the latest criticism has been aimed at Transport Minister Óscar Puente, who has been the government’s frontman on the Adamuz crash. A divisive figure, nicknamed “Sánchez’s Rottweiler,” he is a natural lightning rod for opposition ire. In the immediate aftermath of the accident, Puente insisted it hadn’t been caused by poor maintenance, obsolete infrastructure or a lack of investment. But the opposition is demanding his resignation, claiming he misled the public by suggesting that the whole line on which the accident occurred had been replaced recently, which was not the case. Government spokesperson Elma Saiz said Puente “has been where he has to be and is still there, giving explanations in search of the truth and always with empathy and accompanying the relatives of victims.” REGIONAL TENSIONS Meanwhile, the rail chaos in Catalonia has revived a longstanding grievance of nationalists there: that the Spanish state has chronically underinvested in their regional network. The Catalan Republican Left (ERC), a parliamentary ally of the government, has also called for Puente to step down. The tensions of recent days bear some similarity to the fallout from the flash floods that killed 237 people in eastern Spain in October 2024. The PP-led local government’s apparent mishandling of that tragedy, under the leadership of Carlos Mazón, then president of Valencia, is believed to have eroded support for the conservatives in the region and hurt them on the national level. Simón said it will only become apparent how damaging the railway problems are for Sánchez when more details of the Adamuz crash investigation emerge. He added he did not expect the prime minister to resign or call an election over it. But with an election looming on Feb. 8 in Aragón, before Castilla y León the following month, the rail system has been thrust onto the campaign trail. Simón said the crisis “could have a negative impact on an electoral level” for Sánchez’s Socialists. “Above all because it’s clear [the central government] is responsible, and over the last three years there have been frequent problems with trains in Spain, and that affects a lot of people,” he said.

BRUSSELS — Eurostar services between London and mainland Europe resumed on Wednesday after a major disruption in the Channel Tunnel left thousands of passengers stranded a day earlier. The high-speed rail operator had canceled most of its London-bound and outbound services on Tuesday after an overhead power supply fault inside the tunnel was compounded by a failed Le Shuttle train, which transports passengers and vehicles through the crossing. The incident blocked all routes through the tunnel, causing hours-long delays and widespread cancellations. Some trains in Europe that do not use the Channel crossing, such as the Paris-Brussels route, were also suspended due to the overall delays. A Eurostar spokesperson told POLITICO that services were to resume at 7 p.m. Brussels time (6 p.m. London time) on Tuesday evening, after a “partial reopening of the Channel Tunnel.” Getlink, the company that operates the Channel Tunnel, said work continued through the night to fix the power issue, allowing rail traffic in both directions to restart early Wednesday, BBC reported. Eurostar apologized to passengers for the disruption and warned of possible knock-on delays and last-minute cancellations on Wednesday as services return to normal. Travelers were urged to check their journeys before heading to stations. On Tuesday, Eurostar “strongly” advised passengers to postpone travel where possible and not to head to the train station if their train had been canceled.

International high-speed rail service Eurostar, which connects Brussels and London, canceled all services Tuesday because of technical problems in the Channel Tunnel. “Due to a problem with the overhead power supply and a subsequent failed Le Shuttle train the Channel Tunnel is currently closed. Unfortunately, this means we have no choice but to suspend all services today until further notice,” the company said in a service update on its website. Le Shuttle, the rail service that transports vehicles and passengers through the Channel Tunnel, is experiencing delays of up to three-and-a-half hours, according to an update on its website. Eurostar also urged passengers not to travel to stations, which include Brussels-Midi, Gare du Nord in Paris and St Pancras in London. British media reported there were traffic jams in front of the tunnel terminal in Folkestone, England and stations crowded with stranded passengers in London and Paris. Eurostar denied reports about stranded train passengers in the tunnel. “It is a broken shuttle (LeShuttle) that has now been moved out of the tunnel,” a spokesperson told POLITICO. The Channel Tunnel links Great Britain with mainland Europe. Under normal conditions, the journey from London St Pancras to Brussels-Midi takes about two hours.

LONDON — Eurostar passengers travelling between London and the continent could face higher fares thanks to a U.K. government tax raid on the Channel Tunnel. Eurotunnel, the company which owns the under-sea link, says a business rates revaluation on its infrastructure will effectively treble its payments and see it paying 75 percent tax on new investments. The infrastructure firm says costs will be passed onto operators through higher access charges for trains using the tunnel — raising overheads that are likely to be passed onto passengers. Rail operator Eurostar said the plans “would be at odds with the Government’s ambition” to promote rail travel. Rail freight will also be hit as Eurotunnel warned plans to bring an east London goods yard back into operation would have to be cancelled. It comes as the U.K. braces for a budget of tax rises, with Chancellor Rachel Reeves expected to focus on smaller, specific revenue raising measures after cancelling a planned general hike in income tax. ‘NOTHING LEFT TO INVEST’ Eurotunnel says the Valuation Office Agency (VOA), which sets business rates for the government, hasn’t been transparent about the rise in its payments, which from April are set to go from £22 million to £65 million. The company says access charges are decided by a set formula taking business rates into account, and that they would inevitably rise as a result. “All of the users of the tunnel pay for access. When business rates go up, that’s split amongst the different users,” John Keefe, director of public and corporate affairs at Eurotunnel, told POLITICO. “At this stage, the numbers aren’t one hundred percent known, because we’re hoping we can talk a bit more with the government about this and about bringing a bit more pragmatism into it. But there is a mechanism whereby everybody contributes.” Higher charges for tunnel users would also hit Virgin Trains, the new challenger operator hoping to start running competing services to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam through the tunnel by 2030. The second operator got the green light just last month with the aim of reducing fares and increasing competition on the key international rail route. “Since 2017 we’ve had, over three valuations, a nine-times increase in the valuation. This time it’s gone up, multiplied by three, from £22 million that we pay at the moment to £65 million, which is the ask,” Keefe said. “It needs to be based on what business can actually pay, generate and pay and still invest. Because if you take all the money in business rates, there’s nothing left for investment. So there’s nothing left for growth. “While we’re hearing leading up to the budget, ‘growth, growth, growth, growth, growth’, nobody can invest at that level.” Eurotunnel also complains that the VOA’s calculations are “opaque beyond belief.” “They say, ‘here’s the number.’ And you go, ‘why did you get the number? How did you get to that number? What numbers are you using?’ And they go, ‘there’s the number’,” Keefe said. POLITICO has contacted the VOA for comment. FREIGHT INVESTMENT PAUSED Eurotunnel was planning to reopen Barking rail freight yard in east London to make running freight on trains through the tunnel a more attractive proposition — in line with the government’s own target for a 75 percent increase in rail freight. But Keefe said: “The sums just don’t add up when you’re paying a 75 percent marginal tax rate. So it’s unfortunately going to be frozen.” A spokesperson for Eurostar, the high-speed rail operator, said: “Our priority is enabling more people to travel sustainably, which includes offering affordable lead-in fares and products, and we remain fully committed to our growth plans regardless of the VOA review. “Eurostar continues to engage with the Government and the Valuation Office Agency and is determined to find a positive way forward. However, a three-fold increase in business rates for Channel Tunnel users for the second time would be at odds with the Government’s ambition of economic growth, pioneering European rail connectivity, and encouraging low-carbon rail travel. “Throughout our conversations, we have urged fairness by treating international rail in the same way as domestic rail in business rates terms. Nevertheless, Eurostar continues to commit to its own ambitious growth plans and investments including €2bn in new fleet and new destinations of Frankfurt and Geneva direct from London.”

LONDON — Since Labour swept into office last year, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has traveled the country enthusing over the government’s dream of a humming, futuristic net-zero economy. The good news, according to polling released Wednesday, is that his vision still has the backing of the public. The bad news is that support is slipping — and voters aren’t convinced Miliband is the guy to deliver it. For Miliband’s political opponents, this validates their wider attacks on him as an out-of-touch climate warrior, flogging a net-zero dream voters have rejected. At Reform’s party conference Friday, party chair David Bull referenced “mad Ed swivel-eyed Milliband.” Not to be outdone, the Conservatives have vowed to squeeze every molecule of oil and gas from beneath the North Sea, deadly heatwaves be damned. But it also shines a light on a confusing feature of British politics: a misalignment between the stories politicians want to tell about efforts to stop climate change, and stuff the public actually care about. At Reform’s party conference Friday, the party chair David Bull referenced “mad Ed swivel-eyed Milliband.” | Leon Neal/Getty Images The polling, conducted by progressive think tank More in Common and the Climate Outreach NGO, found the number of people who think reaching net-zero emissions will be good for the U.K. vastly outnumber those who think it will have a negative effect — 48 percent versus 16 percent. More people feel that the shift to clean energy has been fair than unfair. In Scotland, more are proud of the offshore wind industry (63 percent) than the oil and gas industry (54 percent). “Those who seek to divide communities with climate disinformation will not win because they do not represent the interests or values of the British people,” Miliband said in a statement shared with the media. Despite this, voters are hesitant about the personal impact of a country rushing to go green. Seventy-four percent of people think the U.K.’s commitment to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 will eventually cost them money personally. The gap between those who think it will be beneficial for the U.K. versus harmful has shrunk by 20 points in only a year. This is frequently interpreted as a sign that a personal desire to help fix the climate is butting up against the hard realities of net zero, which requires changes like fitting millions of heat pumps and EV chargers and overhauling the energy grid. Further polling released by The Times Tuesday backs up the sense voters are growing more divided on climate change. It shows support for net zero collapsing among Reform and Conservative voters, while overall the issue has slipped from voters’ list of top concerns. But analysts from Climate Outreach said part of the problem isn’t the message but the messengers. “Politicians are not well trusted to speak about climate,” the NGO said in an analysis shared with POLITICO. In fact, elected leaders were the least trusted carriers of the climate message — beneath also-lowly ranked protesters and energy company executives. TRUST ISSUES Voter wariness about pro-climate messages isn’t a feature of green politics in particular, said Emma James, a researcher at Climate Outreach, but a symptom of broader public cynicism about government. “They don’t trust that politicians are there for people like them. Some audience segments feel that the system is rigged against them,” she said. It’s not net zero the public aren’t buying, it’s the ability of this government — or any government — to deliver it. Voters believe the NHS remains broken. National projects like high-speed rail lines and nuclear power stations keep being delayed at higher and higher costs. This creates a problem for Miliband. At a time of deep voter skepticism, his Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) is pursuing precisely that kind of major national project — involving upfront costs, disruption and complex trade-offs, with the promise of huge savings to private and public purses down the line. It will, Miliband argues, generate new jobs. Under Rishi Sunak, the Conservatives went in search of their own set of climate salespeople. | Carl Court/Getty Images “We will win this fight by showing the visible benefits of the clean energy transition,” insisted one Labour official, granted anonymity to discuss the government’s internal deliberations. The story of failure, however, is pervasive and self-reinforcing, said Richard Johnson, a political scientist at Queen Mary University of London. “Policy delivery has to be tied in with a compelling political narrative and the political leadership that can tell that story and interpret what people are seeing in front of their eyes,” he said. “I wonder now if there is such a high level of cynicism … that even if you did tell a compelling narrative around policy delivery, that people would not believe it.” Johnson lays the blame with Miliband’s boss, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, “who has been in a way almost catastrophically unable to put together a compelling narrative for his government. Or, quite frankly, even his own leadership.” Downing Street says it is focused on driving economic growth across the country. This is not isolated to Labour. Under Rishi Sunak, the Conservatives went in search of their own set of climate salespeople — before deciding that there was more political capital in ditching pro-climate policies. Climate Outreach said Miliband could turn this problem into an “opportunity,” as long as he laid off the grand projet and focused on the visible, local benefits of climate policies. And there is some evidence that Labour gets it, seen in the government’s move to chip in for the energy bills of people living in sight of unpopular new electricity pylons. The more conservative or skeptical parts of the British electorate still had deep enthusiasm for messages about protecting the environment, the pollsters said. But most important, the NGO argued, was bringing other voices into the frame. While politicians are viewed very dimly indeed, experts and scientists are seen as credible messengers, the polling shows. So too are those seen to understand what life is like for normal British people. Farmers were among the messengers who cut through most with traditionalists and those described by the pollsters as “patriots.” Jeremy Clarkson, DESNZ needs you.

BRUSSELS — It’s summer. You’ve hopped on a train to glide through Europe, laptop open, to-do list ready — but the onboard Wi-Fi has other plans. Emails don’t send, pages don’t load, and streaming? Forget it. European rail companies often tout connectivity in trains as a perk, but for many passengers, it’s still an exercise in patience over productivity. “The performance and quality of Wi-Fi onboard European trains is very poor,” Luke Kehoe, an industry analyst at connectivity intelligence firm Ookla, told POLITICO. The high speed of a train makes it predictably difficult for Wi-Fi antennas in a carriage — or your smartphone — to keep a steady connection between changing mobile towers. “If a train is going at 200km an hour, the device could be crossing a cell site every 45 or 60 seconds, which is a rapid turnover,” Kehoe said. “What that introduces is a technical challenge called the Doppler effect.” That is when moving fast changes the signal’s frequency— like when a siren shifts pitch — and it can mess with the ability to hold onto a stable connection. The high speed of a train and density of towers make it predictably difficult for Wi-Fi antennas in a carriage — or your smartphone — to keep a steady connection between changing mobile towers. | Stefano Guidi/Getty Images On French SNCF trains, travelers logging onto the Wi-Fi receive a pop-up warning: “Due to the lack of coverage and our speed, the quality of the Wi-Fi may differ from that in your home.” It also advises against watching online videos, which “contributes to limiting the bandwidth.” ‘HELLO? YOU’RE BREAKING UP …’ But bad train Wi-Fi isn’t just about pace or tower count. Many cabins aren’t actually designed to let radio frequencies in. “A lot of trains would have historically used windows that have metalized or [low-emissivity] glass coatings that are inherently not conducive to signal propagation,” Kehoe said. That setup would make the cabin similar to a sort of Faraday cage — an electromagnetic armor that blocks wireless signals, much like what causes your phone to drop calls in an elevator or keeps microwave radiation from escaping. Last year, Belgian rail firm SNCB gave up on setting up Wi-Fi on its trains because of the “high implementation costs and coverage by telecom operators,” spokesperson Tom Guillaume said. Instead, SNCB decided to pass the buck to telecom companies while it invested in “de-coating” glazing that is more conducive to mobile signals. “Telecom operators, therefore, need to improve signal quality and coverage in the vicinity of railway infrastructure,” Guillaume said. The physics of radio frequencies are also well established: The band commonly earmarked for 5G in Europe isn’t great at cutting through trees and leaves, which often line train tracks. It makes it more challenging to reach cabins or phone users directly, in contrast with 4G, where the lower-band frequencies typically used can’t carry as much data, but travel further and handle obstacles better. “We see in our data every summer a significant degradation in mobile network performance in areas of heavy foliage,” Kehoe added. Add in the thousands of tunnels in the continent’s network, and it’s clear European trains have a tough job delivering solid Wi-Fi — though some countries manage to handle it better than others. Switzerland leads the way by far, with onboard Wi-Fi speeds nearly 30 times faster than in Austria and the Netherlands. It was the only country in Ookla’s sample to break the 25 megabits per second median download speed mark — the minimum baseline for reliable internet use. TRAINS ARE IN FOR AN UPGRADE Some rail operators are now looking to the skies — literally — for better onboard internet, turning to satellite providers to help fill coverage gaps along train routes. Czech Railways is experimenting with Elon Musk’s Starlink network, while France’s SNCF is reportedly eyeing both the U.S. constellation and its Franco-British rival, Eutelsat. SNCF didn’t respond to POLITICO’s request for comment. While satellite connectivity works well for airlines — thanks to clear skies and proximity to orbit — it’s not a “bulletproof solution,” Kehoe said, but rather a supplement to the overall connectivity mix. “So much of the focus is about getting the signal to the train, but they have forgotten about getting the signal around the train,” he said. The Wi-Fi equipment and the standards behind it play a major role in how good the connection actually is. Connections sampled by Ookla in Poland — which ranks near the bottom for performance — showed trains still running on Wi-Fi 4, a 2009 standard that offers far less bandwidth and much slower speeds than newer generations. Whether rail operators upgrade routers or windows, “if there is no network coverage, there will be no mobile signal in the train, regardless of the technology used,” SNCB’s Guillaume said. And if you’re thinking of just using your phone’s hotspot to get around a flaky Wi-Fi connection — think again. “If everyone is broadcasting their own Wi-Fi networks, there is a massive interference challenge here,” Kehoe warned. Train internet still sucks — and getting a full steam ahead connection on Europe’s rails is set to remain hit and miss for a while. Hanne Cokelaere contributed to this report.