Spain: Adif traffic controllers' 24-hour strike on Thursday 19 November 2026 (SCF) — trains of all operators could be affected

The Sindicato de Circulación Ferroviario (SCF), the union of the traffic-control staff of the rail infrastructure manager Adif, has called a 24-hour strike on Thursday 19 November 2026. It is the union's second strike day that week: on Tuesday 17 November SCF strikes together with the rest of the sector in the nationwide rail strike. The union announced both days on 6 November, after the conflict-commission procedure at Adif ended without agreement, and was among the unions that refused on 12 November to withdraw their calls.

What to expect: the staff called out regulate train movements from Adif's traffic-control centres and signalling posts, so a stoppage there can affect the trains of every operator — Renfe, Iryo and Ouigo — across the network. How many trains actually run depends on the minimum services the Ministry of Transport sets, which had not been published by 13 November. According to the trade press, earlier stoppages by this group passed almost unnoticed by passengers because the minimum services were set very high, at times at 100 per cent. Operators publish any cancelled trains and their change and refund conditions once the order is out.

Why: SCF says the traffic-control centres are understaffed. It asks for more staff to cover rest breaks, leave and sickness, continuous training with simulator practice for degraded situations, limits on how long a controller regulates traffic without a break, daily instead of weekly notices of temporary speed restrictions, limits on how many worksites one controller supervises, the ERTMS signalling system on the Madrid–Seville high-speed line, and a month of supervised work for newly qualified staff. The dispute follows the collision near Urda (Toledo) on 28 October, in which 69 people died.