Barely 18 hours after the first trains were halted, Spain’s Transport Minister Óscar Puente emerged from all-night talks with SEMAF, CCOO and UGT to announce a provisional agreement that calls off the nationwide rail strike from Tuesday, 10 February. Under the pact Adif will raise its annual infrastructure-maintenance budget by 19 % and recruit 2,400 additional technical staff, while Renfe will hire 50 inspectors for the new Railway Safety Agency.
The accord also commits the state infrastructure manager to publish a public, line-by-line safety audit before the summer and to create a permanent joint committee—made up of unions, operators and independent engineers—that can halt traffic in real time when crews report landslides, flooding or signalling failures. A €100 million emergency fund will be released within 30 days for the repair of the Adamuz and Gelida crash sites and the single-track Abdalajís tunnel on the Málaga-Córdoba axis.
For corporate mobility teams the deal avoids two more days of complete shutdown, but uncertainty remains: smaller unions CGT and Sindicato Ferroviario rejected the text and intend to continue 24-hour stoppages, which means that some regional and freight services may still be cancelled. Travellers are therefore advised to confirm departures at least 24 hours in advance and to retain flexible tickets wherever possible.
![Government signs late-night deal to suspend rail strike—but minority unions hold out]()
For international staff and visitors caught by such last-minute disruptions, VisaHQ’s online platform (https://www.visahq.com/spain/) can be a lifeline, providing rapid Spanish and Schengen visa processing along with real-time entry guidance. Mobility managers can thus keep assignments on track even when rail chaos forces itinerary changes.
The saga underscores how quickly Spain’s attractive, carbon-friendly rail network can become a bottleneck for multinationals. Companies that shifted executive travel from Madrid-Barcelona air shuttles to the AVE to meet ESG goals find themselves forced back into the skies or onto roads, undermining both sustainability targets and budgets.
In the longer term, the new safety-first investment plan—totalling more than €4 billion through 2030—could significantly improve reliability. Immigration advisers note that better security credentials may also speed up the long-promised extension of Renfe’s international AVE to France and Portugal, projects that would broaden relocation options for cross-border staff.
The accord also commits the state infrastructure manager to publish a public, line-by-line safety audit before the summer and to create a permanent joint committee—made up of unions, operators and independent engineers—that can halt traffic in real time when crews report landslides, flooding or signalling failures. A €100 million emergency fund will be released within 30 days for the repair of the Adamuz and Gelida crash sites and the single-track Abdalajís tunnel on the Málaga-Córdoba axis.
For corporate mobility teams the deal avoids two more days of complete shutdown, but uncertainty remains: smaller unions CGT and Sindicato Ferroviario rejected the text and intend to continue 24-hour stoppages, which means that some regional and freight services may still be cancelled. Travellers are therefore advised to confirm departures at least 24 hours in advance and to retain flexible tickets wherever possible.
For international staff and visitors caught by such last-minute disruptions, VisaHQ’s online platform (https://www.visahq.com/spain/) can be a lifeline, providing rapid Spanish and Schengen visa processing along with real-time entry guidance. Mobility managers can thus keep assignments on track even when rail chaos forces itinerary changes.
The saga underscores how quickly Spain’s attractive, carbon-friendly rail network can become a bottleneck for multinationals. Companies that shifted executive travel from Madrid-Barcelona air shuttles to the AVE to meet ESG goals find themselves forced back into the skies or onto roads, undermining both sustainability targets and budgets.
In the longer term, the new safety-first investment plan—totalling more than €4 billion through 2030—could significantly improve reliability. Immigration advisers note that better security credentials may also speed up the long-promised extension of Renfe’s international AVE to France and Portugal, projects that would broaden relocation options for cross-border staff.
