More than 100 rail passengers were left stranded in Spain after their driver stopped the train because he had reached the maximum number of hours he could legally work, officials have said.

The train, operated by Spain’s state rail company, Renfe, had left the northern city of Santander at 7pm on Tuesday, bound for Madrid.

Four dead after passenger train derails in SpainRead more

Two-and-a-quarter hours later, it pulled into the station at the village of Osorno, where the driver had apparently been expecting to hand over to a colleague.

After failing to find anyone to take over, he got off the train “saying that he had exceeded his shift hours”.

Under Spanish law, train drivers are not allowed to work for more than six straight hours to prevent fatigue and avoid accidents.

Carlos Segura, a spokesman for the Semaf train drivers union, said: “It is not because he decided to leave to go home.”

The train’s 109 stranded passengers were looked after by Renfe, which organised two coaches and a taxi to take them to their destinations.

The company said it was investigating what had happened, adding: “Renfe would like to reiterate its apologies to all the affected passengers and regrets the inconvenience that this incident caused them.” It also offered them a full refund.

Last week, four people were killed and 48 injured when a train derailed in Galicia. Preliminary investigations based on information from the train’s black boxes, suggest it was travelling four times faster than it should have been on the stretch of track in O Porriño.

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