The Chamber describes the railway chaos as a "drama," but gives the State "a vote of confidence."

BarcelonaThe Barcelona Chamber of Commerce has described the current collapse of the railway system in Catalonia as a "tragedy" and has harshly criticized both the planning and execution so far of the commuter rail plan for 2020-2030. The Chamber, led by Alicia Casart, denounced delays of hundreds of millions of euros in both the bidding and execution phases of infrastructure projects. However, the Chamber's vice president, Miquel Martí, advocated giving "a vote of confidence" to the Ministry of Labor and the two state-owned companies that manage the affected infrastructure, Adif and Renfe. Specifically, Casart recalled that, prior to the system collapse two weeks ago, the commuter rail service had suffered from deficiencies for years, to the point that it had become "normal" for "users' patience to be routinely pushed beyond its limits," resulting in a "low quality" of the network. Therefore, she added, the commuter rail plan approved by the Spanish government was intended to "make up for lost time" and "bring the network up to date." This is complemented by the creation of a new mixed operating company with a stake held by the Catalan government (although the State retains a majority stake) and progress in transferring the infrastructure to the Catalan administration. However, the head of infrastructure at the Chamber of Commerce asserted that the plan is experiencing implementation delays, both in the bidding process for construction projects and in their execution. Thus, according to the initial plan, Adif, Renfe, and the Ministry of Transport are €800 million behind schedule. The execution of works and nearly €1 billion more in tenders—a delay that will ultimately penalize future projects as well: "Today's tenders are the news in Barcelona." Casart also criticized the plan's poor planning regarding the necessary actions. Specifically, the plan included a €1.018 billion program for replacing all types of assets on the network and at Renfe, which was progressing at a "fairly good" pace in 2024. However, that same year, the copper theft at Torre Baró triggered "a series of fires that crippled the Rodal network." This incident "set off all the alarms," ​​as it compounded other problems between 2023 and 2025, causing "a range of incidents that could not be explained solely by the volume of renovation work" being carried out on the railway infrastructure.

This is how, according to Casart, the "turning point" was reached, represented by the collapse of January 2026, which still persists in a large part of the network. "Until this January, the incidents were electrical in nature, affecting the overhead lines and track switches," Casart explained, but on January 21st, a wall collapsed in Gelida. It caused a serious train accident. The accident—in which the driver died—highlighted that the conventional rail network in Catalonia is "an infrastructure as a whole, including the civil works, that is degraded and cannot withstand a storm." "How can we find a network in this condition? It's practically unusable," exclaimed the Chamber's technician.

Given this situation, Casart expressed skepticism about the increase, announced on January 27, from €1.018 billion to €2.243 billion in the asset replacement program for the commuter rail plan, because this would mean doubling the annual execution figures to €1 billion in order to meet the two-year deadline for completing all investments. Furthermore, she criticized the addition of more funds now for this purpose, which demonstrates that, in drafting the plan, "two things were done wrong: the planning and the priorities." "More is being spent, yes, but it's not enough; the budget figures are very high, but the execution figures are not," she asserted. In the opinion of the entity's infrastructure manager, "we have become too accustomed to central government budgets that are not meeting even minimally acceptable percentages" of the planned investments in Catalonia.

However, the Chamber maintains that, with the second phase of the commuter rail plan, "now is the time to pick up speed and do things right," Casart said. In particular, he called for swift action to reconnect the Port of Barcelona by rail and repair the most critical points of the infrastructure, especially the Rubí tunnel, so that rail freight transport is "robust, resilient, and reliable." It is a "crucial moment," he emphasized.

In this regard, and despite criticism of the State for its current and historical management, the Chamber's vice president, Miquel Martí, wanted to give "a vote of confidence" to the Spanish government, Adif (the Spanish railway infrastructure manager), and Renfe (the Spanish national railway company). "I don't want to lose institutional confidence. Sometimes things have to break down to get fixed once and for all," Martí stated.

Optimism about the economy

In addition to the analysis of the state of the commuter rail network, the Chamber also presented its quarterly economic outlook report, in which it maintained its growth forecasts for the Catalan economy at 2.9% and 2.4% for 2025 and 2026, respectively. The director of the Chamber's research department, Joan This has been happening for about a year now.Macroeconomic data indicates a "certain shift in growth factors" that points to optimism. Rovira noted that, unlike in the past, this past year economic growth in Catalonia has been driven by business investment in productive assets and household consumption. Furthermore, despite the trade war initiated by the United States, exports have maintained a good pace and increased in value, even if their volume has not risen as much. These indicators show, according to the Chamber's economist, that there is a change in the productive structure of the Catalan economy: "We cannot confirm whether there is a change in the production model, but there are signs that point in the right direction," he said. The report highlights gains in productivity and competitiveness, as well as a greater contribution to job creation from high value-added sectors, such as professional services, healthcare, education, and technology and telecommunications. Productivity growth is generally considered by economists to be one of the main drivers of wealth creation in economies, especially advanced ones.