Spain's deputy PM Carlos Cuerpo takes over the Transport Ministry after Óscar Puente resigns over the Urda train crash

Spain's first deputy prime minister, Carlos Cuerpo, is taking charge of the Transport Ministry after Óscar Puente resigned over last week's high-speed train crash near Urda, in Toledo province, in which 69 people were killed. This report draws on Expansión, Público, Europa Press, BBC News, CNN and RTVE. Quotations from Spanish have been translated by Scopa's Realm. ## Update: Cuerpo takes over Transport Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced at the Moncloa on Wednesday 4 November that Cuerpo, who is also Economy Minister, will run the ministry until a new government is formed after the 29 November general election, and that no new minister will be named because the vote is so close, Expansión and Público report. A special edition of the official gazette, the BOE, published the decree the same day and confirmed Puente's removal, Europa Press reports. Government sources told Europa Press that Cuerpo will handle the ministry's ordinary business temporarily and will not be sworn in as Transport Minister. Sánchez said Puente had stepped down "out of empathy with the victims, out of consistency and out of political dignity", and that his resignation would help Spain regain confidence "not only in our rail system but also in political dignity", Público reports. ## The resignation Puente announced his resignation on Tuesday 3 November at the end of a session of the standing committee of Congress on the crash, saying a minister could not stay in office "with two accidents of this seriousness in less than a year", RTVE and the BBC report. The Urda crash followed January's deadly crash at Adamuz, Expansión reports. He also withdrew as a Socialist (PSOE) candidate in the election. More than 200 people were injured in the Urda crash, CNN reports.