The formal investigation into the Toledo train disaster has only just been launched but the government has been quick to take control of the narrative.

From the first hours after the collision, Transport Minister Oscar Puente began suggesting "human error" was to blame, batting responsibility as far as possible from the cabinet.

On Friday, he appeared before the press for a second time to set out what he called the "objective facts" of the crash and counter a surge of criticism against the government.

The opposition People's Party (PP) is among those calling for his resignation as a "moral" and "ethical" move.

Instead after expressing "huge pain and sadness" for the victims, Puente went on the offensive.

He rejected talk of chronic underinvestment in infrastructure and insisted that Spain's high-speed signalling safety system, the LZB, was neither old nor inadequate: Germany and Austria use the same.

In Spain, it has already failed 170 times so far this year, he revealed, but called that "normal" and…