One major difference between European countries and the US when it comes to derailments is that most of our derailments are going to come from minor derailments from yard switching operations. When these happen, it’s generally something as small as a couple of wheels of one car getting on the ground. Since we primarily move freight (which requires a lot of switching) and Europe primarily moves people (which should require far less switching), you’re going to see a much larger number of derailments based on the type of operation.

I’d imagine most of those derailments in Spain and across the EU are main line derailments which are the types of derailments you generally think of. To get a good comparison we’d need to see how the US compares to the EU on main line derailments as they’re generally the ones that really matter.