Antoni Bassas' analysis: 'A joint venture with those responsible for the chaos cannot be the solution'

Last night, the Catalan and Spanish governments announced for this morning partial restoration of commuter rail serviceIt was reported that 69 points on the rail network had been inspected in recent days to ensure the safe resumption of service. It was also announced that the service would be free for a month.

What do you think happened this morning? Well, the service has been restored and It has been suspended twiceAround 6:30 a.m., the Adif control center at França Station crashed twice for unknown reasons. The result? Few people at the stations, information officers at a loss for words—in other words, information officers without information—quite a few extra buses, and the Catalan government recommending working from home.

This is the perfect illustration of the mess. Don't miss this morning's Cercanías news channel's coverage; it couldn't be clearer. Within a couple of hours, the first tweet announced the service was starting; minutes later, it was suspended due to a problem at the Adif control center; minutes later, it was restored, and then suspended again. This has been Cercanías Renfe this morning: an intermittent service, running now, then not, then running now, then not. Minister Puente later even suggested that he couldn't rule out the possibility that what happened at França Station was sabotage or a cyberattack. For passengers, it makes no difference: today, everyone who depended on the train either couldn't catch it or arrived late.

Look, we've been protesting for years: there's been no investment in commuter rail. There have been years when 90% of the spending on tracks and trains in Spain has gone to high-speed rail. Even in the years when investment was budgeted, only half of it was actually spent (we explained this on Friday in ARA). In the case of Catalonia, this neglect is especially devastating because we are eight million people, whose rail system was already outdated, and in a region with challenging terrain, and now also a difficult climate. We already know this. We also know that the railways that were transferred to the autonomous communities (Basque Country, Valencian Community, Mallorca, Catalonia) are performing better than those that remain under central government control.

At this point, thinking that the solution the Catalan government has come up with is to create a mixed commuter rail company with those responsible for the chaos makes no sense. Companies that have made chaos the norm for the service cannot be trusted. Councilor Paneque and Commissioner Macias are working and taking responsibility, unlike Adif and Renfe. But they have very little power, as we see every day. For example, on Saturday the Catalan government suspended the service, but Renfe disobeyed and ran trains. And if they were to resign now, those who came after them would face a similar fate, just as they did before them. Get the commuter rail services and Adif out of Catalonia. The commuter rail service should be in the hands of Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat (FGC) with the corresponding state funding.

Good morning.