Goods from the port of Barcelona will resume shipment to France this Thursday

BarcelonaThe rail chaos in Catalonia has had a major impact on operations at the Port of Barcelona and all the goods that usually leave daily by train from its terminals. the Gelida commuter train accidentThe train accident that resulted in the death of a driver has affected trains traveling south. This disruption has worsened since last week, when the Rubí tunnel, through which trains depart for France, had to be closed. This situation has led to national and international service disruptions and a 10% increase in daily truck traffic at the Barcelona rail infrastructure to unload containers.

"The future is rail," declared the president of the Port of Barcelona, ​​José Alberto Carbonell, at the annual press conference on financial results, which were overshadowed this Tuesday by the events of recent weeks. "The flow of goods sustains our country's economic activity. All of this has highlighted the importance of land transport, whether road or rail. The port needs a reliable network: a contingency plan is necessary to prevent this from happening again," Carbonell emphasized, accompanied by the general manager, Àlex Garcia. The Port of Barcelona declined to quantify the economic impact of this disruption, which directly affects rail operators and freight forwarders, but acknowledged "reputational damage." For the time being, no ships have diverted traffic to other ports.

With a blockade that has lasted for two weeks, the infrastructure hopes to gradually recover rail traffic throughout this week, although no date has yet been given for the full resumption of freight rail traffic. For now, the Rubí tunnel, whose structure has shown cracks for some time, will reactivate train traffic starting this Thursday, although it will not allow passage throughout the day. Trains will have to share the road with the emergency works being carried out by Adif to address the structural deficiencies that had been detected, for which improvement works had already been put out to tender and which have had to be expedited.

On the other hand, trains heading south will be able to run again on the line that passes through Gelida – where the R4 line runs – starting next Monday. After three days without any service, this traffic was redirected via the Vilanova line – used by the R2 line – on a restricted basis during nighttime hours, with capacity settling at around 25%. This represents the largest flow of rail traffic through the port, accounting for almost 80%, with Zaragoza as the main destination. Before the strike, on a normal day, there were 22 trains running daily, while international trains accounted for only three daily.

The Port consolidates a turnover exceeding €200 million for the second consecutive year

Despite a rocky start to the year, the Port of Barcelona closed 2015 with a turnover of €206 million. This marks the second consecutive year with a turnover exceeding €200 million, as reported by Deputy General Manager of Finance, Miriam Alaminos. Profits fell to €47 million due to the €10 million financing of BIT Habitat's new coffee terminal. Debt also decreased by €18 million, reaching approximately €88 million. These financial results were accompanied by a total traffic volume of 69.5 million tons, in line with the previous year's figure. This balance is primarily due to the decline in transshipment containers, a traffic volume that has stabilized after the peak experienced following the closure of the Suez Canal. Bulk solids have also decreased due to the technical shutdown of one of the soybean processing plants at the port. On the other hand, bulk liquids have increased, driven by the rise in liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports from the United States and automobiles, especially those imported from China, which account for 45% of the total.