Rules & Institutions

Southern Europe spends 37% less on rail maintenance than the rest of the EU

Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece, per kilometre of line, 2016 to 2022, after adjusting for their lower wages and building costs.

Open the poston Instagram · 3 November 2026

The carousel

All 8 cards as they were posted. Scroll sideways to read them in order.

  1. Cover card: the statement 'Southern Europe spends 37% less on rail maintenance than the rest of the EU' set below an image of a track worker in orange high-visibility clothing and a white hard hat, seen from behind, working a tamping tool on a ballasted line that runs straight to the horizon; the picture fades into the headline.
  2. Map of the EU with Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece shaded and a bubble, sized by the lives lost, for every train crash that cost ten or more lives from 2004 to October 2026. The four largest are Angrois in Spain (2013), Tempi in Greece (2023), and Adamuz and Urda in Spain (2026); smaller ones are in Italy, Belgium, Germany, Czechia and Poland.
  3. Statement card: from 2010 to October 2026 Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece lost 319 lives in train collisions, derailments and fires, about six times the rest of the EU's rate per passenger-kilometre, which would give about 53.
  4. Scatter of 25 countries on log scales: maintenance per kilometre, 2016-2022, against serious train accidents per billion passenger-kilometres, 2010-2024. A line fitted after the results slopes down, its band wide enough to hold a flat line. Greece is high on accidents and low on maintenance, Portugal above the line, Spain just below it, Italy low; the south four are in colour. A serious accident cost a life, seriously hurt someone, or caused heavy damage or long disruption.
  5. Dot chart of maintenance and renewal per kilometre of line a year, 2016-2022 average, after adjusting for wages and building costs, one row per country on a log scale: Greece about €7,000, Portugal €55,000, Spain €60,000 and Italy €87,000, in colour, against the Netherlands' €397,000 near the top. Dashed lines mark the south four together, about €69,000, and the other 21 EU countries together, about €109,000.
  6. Statement card: over 2016-2022, of every €1,000 of public spending, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece put about €5 into rail and the other 21 EU countries about €7; of every €100 of that rail money, the south four kept €24 for maintenance and renewal and the rest €59. Measured against each country's own spending, so it needs no price adjustment.
  7. Bar chart of each country's rail infrastructure money per €1,000 of all public spending, 2016-2022 average, with the part spent on maintenance and renewal solid inside each bar: Spain €1.32, Italy €1.19, Portugal €0.94 and Greece €0.12 are the four lowest of 25, below Denmark's €2.78, as they were in each of the four years; every eastern member is above them, Romania, among the EU's poorest, at about €3. Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece are in colour.
  8. Conclusion card: being poorer does not explain Southern Europe's rail maintenance gap, because Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece keep less of their public spending for maintenance than any other EU country with a railway, poorer ones included. Below, every source behind the post and its editor, Carlos D. Prado S., then an invitation to send it to someone who should know this, over notezeit's aim: to discover patterns, nuances and trade-offs that help humanity make better decisions.

The caption

Spain has had three train crashes this year that cost lives. Urda cost 69, Adamuz 46 and Gelida one.

Does the north keep its railways in shape while the south pays in lives? We measured both halves. Across four years from 2016 to 2022, after adjusting for their lower wages and building costs, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece together spent about €69,000 a year keeping each kilometre of line in shape, while the other 21 EU countries spent about €109,000. The gap was there in each of the four years, even in 2022, the south's best.

Is that just being poorer? Against their own budgets, not really. For every €1,000 their governments spent, they kept about €1.20 for rail maintenance, under a third of the rest's share, and in each of the four years no other EU country kept less. They put only a little less into rail, but far less of it into maintenance. Every eastern member, though poorer, kept more. The gap is about priorities, not poverty.

From 2010 to October 2026 the south four lost 319 lives in train crashes, about six times the rest of the EU's rate per kilometre travelled. Meanwhile, across 25 countries, more maintenance goes with fewer serious train accidents. Can Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece set their priorities right and actually become safer?

#RailSafety #Railways #Infrastructure #PublicSpending #Spain

What each card says, and where it comes from

Every card of the carousel, in order, with the sources behind it.

  1. 01

    Cover

    Southern Europe spends 37% less on rail maintenance than the rest of the EU

    From Eurostat · European Commission

    AI-generated editorial illustration.

  2. 02

    THE WORST CRASHES

    The EU's four worst train crashes since 2004 were all in Spain and Greece

    From Eurostat · Al Jazeera · Wikipedia · Natural Earth

  3. 03

    THE RISK

    Per kilometre travelled, Southern Europe lost six times as many lives in train crashes

    From Eurostat · Al Jazeera · ABC News

  4. 04

    THE SAFETY LINK

    More maintenance goes with fewer serious train accidents

    From Eurostat · European Commission

  5. 05

    PER KILOMETRE

    The south four spend about €40,000 less a year maintaining each kilometre of railway

    From Eurostat · European Commission

  6. 06

    WHERE THE MONEY GOES

    The south four put a little less money into rail, and far less of it into maintenance

    From Eurostat · European Commission

  7. 07

    THEIR OWN BUDGETS

    Every year, the south four kept the least of their budgets for maintenance

    From Eurostat · European Commission

  8. 08

    THE BOTTOM LINE

    Southern Europe's rail maintenance gap is about priorities, not poverty

    From Eurostat · European Commission

Sources

For each source, what it supports in this story and what it cannot tell us.

  1. ES11

    Eurostat, price level indices, civil engineering works (prc_ppp_ind, PLI_EU27_2020, A050203)

    What it supports
    What the same track work costs in each country (EU-27 = 100), so euros of upkeep compare at equal prices
    What it cannot tell us
    A price level for civil engineering in general, not for railway work alone

    Read on 31 October 2026

  2. EC01

    European Commission, Ninth report on monitoring development of the rail market, data package (9th RMMS package data and figures, 2025)

    What it supports
    Figure 12: each country's 2022 infrastructure spending split into maintenance, renewals, upgrades and new infrastructure (the upkeep share); Figure 10, the EU-27 totals by year (the kill condition); Figure 17, high-speed spending by type, and Figure 15, spending per line-km (post hoc, the record's numbers checked)
    What it cannot tell us
    Data to 2022 from the member states' rail market monitoring returns; categories are each infrastructure manager's; the sheets list countries in rank order, so the upkeep share's order was seen before its test (brief, amendment 1)

    Read on 31 October 2026

  3. EC04

    European Commission, Seventh report on monitoring development of the rail market, package data and figures (2021)

    What it supports
    Figure 11: each country's 2018 split into maintenance, renewals, upgrades and new infrastructure; Figure 10, the EU-27 totals by year, 2011-2018
    What it cannot tell us
    Romania absent; categories are each infrastructure manager's

    Read on 1 November 2026

  4. RS08

    Local reproducible analysis, third registration: four years of upkeep and deaths to 2026

    What it supports
    Each country's upkeep per kilometre at equal prices and per €1,000 of public spending in 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2022 and their four-year means; the groups typical and pooled; the opening number; train-accident deaths and passenger-km to 31 October 2026, the extra deaths and the links across countries
    What it cannot tell us
    Chosen after the results and registered before computing; 2022 reproduces RS06 and RS07; 2025-2026 deaths from the record, a floor

    Read on 1 November 2026

  5. ES02

    Eurostat, "Rail accidents victims by type of accident and category of persons involved" (tran_sf_railvi), 2006-2024

    What it supports
    Deaths in train collisions, derailments and fires, every country and year since 2006: the list of major crashes
    What it cannot tell us
    From the European Union Agency for Railways' common safety indicators; a country-year can hold more than one accident

    Read on 31 October 2026

  6. AJ01

    Al Jazeera, "What we know about Spain's second high-speed rail tragedy this year", 29 October 2026

    What it supports
    Toledo: "At least 68 people were killed and about 80 injured"; a computer failure "knocked out LZB, the main signalling system"; an "inexplicable" order from the control centre; the line "is Spain's only high-speed route still using LZB, which dates from the line's opening in 1992"; "Adif was awarded a 52-month contract in 2021 to replace it with the European Union's standard signalling system, but the work is still under way"; Adamuz "killing 46 people"
    What it cannot tell us
    News explainer two days after the crash; the count was still rising (Ara reported more than 70 on 30 October)

    Read on 31 October 2026

  7. WP02

    Wikipedia, pages and coordinates of the named crashes (Crevalcore 2005, Studénka 2008, Viareggio 2009, Halle/Buizingen 2010, Merano 2010, Hordorf 2011, Szczekociny 2012, Santiago de Compostela 2013, Bad Aibling 2016, Andria-Corato 2016, Tempi 2023)

    What it supports
    The name, date and place of the crash behind each major country-year, for the map
    What it cannot tell us
    Every page's date checked by RS01; never used for a count

    Read on 31 October 2026

  8. NE01

    Natural Earth, 1:50m Admin 0 – Countries, v5.1.2

    What it supports
    The country outlines on the map
    What it cannot tell us
    Public domain; a layout, not data; vendored in 05_content/assets/maps/

    Read on 31 October 2026

  9. ES08

    Eurostat, passengers transported (rail_pa_total, million passenger-km)

    What it supports
    How many people use the trains and how far they ride: the denominator of accidents and deaths per passenger
    What it cannot tell us
    Belgium only to 2011, Hungary 13 years, Poland 15

    Read on 31 October 2026

  10. AB01

    ABC News (US), "'Inexplicable' order probed as cause of train crash that killed at least 69: Official", 29 October 2026

    What it supports
    Toledo: "At least 69 people were killed after two trains collided on Spain's Madrid-Seville high-speed line on Wednesday, officials said"; a 74 from the Interior Ministry "later revised that number downward to 69 dead"
    What it cannot tell us
    A broadcaster reporting officials' figures; the record's count for Urda

    Read on 3 November 2026

  11. ES04

    Eurostat, "Rail accidents by type of accident" (tran_sf_railac), 2006-2024

    What it supports
    Significant train accidents (collisions, derailments, fires) by country and year, for the accident rate and its trend
    What it cannot tell us
    Used from 2010, the first comparable year

    Read on 31 October 2026

  12. ES12

    Eurostat, general government total expenditure (gov_10a_main, MIO_EUR, S13, TE)

    What it supports
    All public spending by each country, each year, so its rail infrastructure money can be put against it
    What it cannot tell us
    National accounts, so it covers central, regional and local government and social security; the members' 2022 values add to the EU-27 total exactly. Rail infrastructure money is the infrastructure managers' spending, which EU grants and track charges also pay for, so the two make a ratio, not a budget line; added after the results

    Read on 31 October 2026

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