The Russian roulette of arriving on time if you use the Rodalies in Catalonia: "It can't be that it's always my turn"

Every day, 300,000 Catalans board the Rodalies trains in the hope of arriving at their workplace, school or university on time.. “When you look at the schedules you have to calculate two trains before the one you should take to make sure you will arrive on time,” says Jon García, a young university student waiting on the platform at El Masnou (Barcelona).. “You never know when it will happen or what time it will arrive”: a Russian roulette of punctuality with which millions of travelers coexist every day.

According to the Territory Department of the Government, in 2022, 831 serious incidents were recorded, an average of more than two incidents per day.. This year, from January to August, only 44 days have been recorded without notable incidents compared to 199 in which the service has been altered. The most striking fact is that during July and August there were 26 serious incidents related to infrastructure or trains; one every two days.

To refute the criticisms of the Generalitat, Renfe has made a statement stating that the Generalitat focuses on the 22,500 trains that were delayed and not on the remaining 278,000 that arrived on time.. This figure maintains that 92.5% of users used the train normally. “It's hardly credible, it can't be that I take all the bad trains,” says Noelia Poyato, a regular user of the R4 in a skeptical tone.. With 22,500 trains delayed a year, the chances of Russian roulette are much higher.

A tunnel is missing under Barcelona

One of the most obvious problems in the Rodalies network is the access to the Catalan capital. The age of the facilities and the increase in traffic through the tunnels generate bottlenecks and constant delays in the movement of trains.. “We have normalized wasting time in the tunnels and not receiving any explanation of what is happening,” explains María González, who uses the Rodalies service every day to travel to Barcelona.. The Catalan capital has been planning the construction of a new tunnel to decongest the center for years, but the administrations still cannot agree.

Another of the main recriminations from users is the lack of effective communication on the part of the operator: “Absolute normality means that there are always incidents,” comments, ironically, Adrià Garnica, a regular user of the R1 line that connects the Catalan capital. with the Maresme coast.

Unpaid invoices

All this in the context of Sánchez's investiture, which the pro-independence parties want to take advantage of to start a competition that the government, both the PP and the PSOE, have refused to transfer..

At the height of the negotiations, the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) has condemned the Generalitat to pay nearly 81 million euros to Renfe for the expansion services that were agreed upon when it obtained the service planning powers (timetables). and rates) in 2010. The ruling maintains that the complementary services provided are the responsibility of the Catalan government, as it is the owner of the service, and that they must be the ones to assume the payments..

The Generalitat has announced that it will not pay the debt and that it will appeal the court ruling. The Minister of Territory, Ester Capella, defended in statements to Ser non-payments to Renfe, since the State “takes charge of these expansions in other places”. In addition, he adds that the services for which the central government does have powers “don't work either.”.

Intercity buses, victims

Recurrent incidents in the train service force users to look for alternatives that allow them to continue with their established schedule.. The Generalitat accuses Renfe of causing “harm to users and their economic activity” in addition to “straining the public transport system”.

In Catalonia, the bus network is not efficient. The lower capacity and low frequency make it not a real transportation option for most users.. The situation worsens when there are serious incidents. Intercity buses receive a demand that they do not have the capacity to face. For this reason, although the train service in Catalonia has many deficiencies, users have no other option than to use it.. “It is difficult to find the bus schedules, it is more confusing and they seem to hide them,” say regular train users when asked about their choice of transportation..

The Government has also taken care to point out to the State for the free rates, since “it destabilizes the system and makes it difficult for supply to adequately adapt to real demand.”. In 2022, Rodalies accumulated a total of 108 million users compared to 83 in 2021, data that supports the supposed saturation of the service.. But this changes when we look at 2019, the year before the pandemic, when the number of annual users reached 128.5 million.

The controversy comes a few days after the R3, the line that connects Hospitalet de Llobregat with the Catalan Pyrenees, was cut off for three months. The interruption of service is part of the works to improve infrastructure. It is estimated that the interruption of service will affect about 12,000 users per day, who will have alternative bus service.

The total of the actions will involve an investment of 155 million euros that was approved in 2020 and includes the doubling of the tracks and the fencing of the section in which four young people died a month ago.. The general secretary of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda has explained that it is a “comprehensive transformation” of the line.