Spanish transport minister faces calls to quit after deadly train crash

Spain's transport minister is coming under mounting pressure to resign after the accident. He's just ruled out doing so during a press conference. For the latest, we can cross live to our correspondent, Sarah Morris. Sarah, what did the transport minister say? He said that he understood the pain of those family members who'd lost people in the crash. And he said he also understood the desire for someone to assume responsibilities for those two fatal crashes in the same year. But he said his definition of assuming responsibilities was to stay, to give explanations and to fix any problems that exist. And he responded in quite... A defensive, well, a strident way saying that he wanted to correct some of the things he said that he felt were untrue. Notably, he said that the stretch of the line between Madrid and Seville, which is operating under a traffic signaling system, he said that that was not unsafe. He said that it was going to be upgraded as part of a European interoperability rule The rules say that it has to be upgraded, changed by 2040, 2050, but he said that that is simply a European Union decision to make sure everything works properly together. But he said that this is a system that is operated in Germany, Austria, that runs tubes. In the UK and in other countries, he said there's nothing unsafe about it. And he said that at the end of the day, humans are at the end of the chain. He described the chronology of the events leading up to that tragic crash. And he basically said the control center. In Atocha had been the ultimate route of the decision taken to allow that Renfe train to continue at up to 160 kilometers per hour, crashing into the rear end of the stationary EU high speed train. He basically said that he wasn't pointing the finger and saying that a particular worker should pay the price, but he has said that individual responsibilities would be part of the examination and they would go through the proper channels. Well, all of this, Sarah, do you think that will be enough to convince his critics? It may well not be enough to convince those calling for his. A resignation or calling for the Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to sack him. We've seen the drivers union come out particularly angrily saying that they feel that control centre workers at Atocha are being singled out. And there was a lack of resources. They are under pressure. The pressure that privatization has led to more trains on the network and that they need reinforcements And in fact they were on strike action The death Of the accident after an agreement they say after the previous crash in January it wasnt fully implemented to upgrade staff conditions and the network All right, Sarah Morris, thank you very much for that update.