Hostages to infrastructure chaos

For the second consecutive day, Catalonia is experiencing a railway paralysis and traffic chaos due to the closure of the AP-7 highway. This situation is unbecoming of an advanced economy and severely damages the credibility of successive governments that have announced large investments that have subsequently failed to materialize. The Gelida accident can be attributed to the recent heavy rains, but this is not the underlying cause: it is the deplorable state of the entire commuter rail network, a problem that has persisted for decades and which no Spanish government has been able to remedy. While Spain boasts abroad of being a high-speed rail powerhouse, Catalan commuter rail users endure a daily ordeal of disruptions, delays, and a lack of information. To make matters worse, this Thursday, citizens discovered that, contrary to what their own government had told them, there was no commuter rail service. The widespread indignation felt today is entirely justified, and the Catalan government has been exposed. On the one hand, because yesterday it rushed to announce the restoration of service when the drivers' discontent demanded a more cautious approach, and on the other hand, because it has become clear that in practice it lacks effective leverage since the service is run by the state-owned operator Renfe. In any case, the government was neither clear enough yesterday nor did it coordinate well with Renfe.

It's understandable that a decades-long accumulated investment deficit can't be resolved overnight and that a transfer of this complexity takes time, but it's incomprehensible that since 2010 only half of what was announced has been invested. All the parties with Catalan representation in the Catalan Parliament and the Spanish Congress should take a stand against this situation and demand a radical change in the way the ministries involved operate. Whether through the investment consortium agreed upon by ERC or the commitments made by the Spanish government to Junts, a solution must be found urgently. In terms of management, an audit should also be conducted to determine if Renfe, Adif, and the Ministry are sufficiently competent, because there is certainly ample room for improvement.

The disinvestment in rail could also extend to other key areas of mobility, such as the AP-7 motorway. The closure of southbound traffic is causing a ripple effect throughout the road network. This highway is the backbone that carries most of the freight traffic crossing Catalonia. Cutting this route is tantamount to suffocating a vital economic artery that is already struggling on a daily basis. The conclusion is that both the commuter rail network and the AP-7 are saturated and on the verge of collapse, if they haven't already. Without local transport and high-capacity freight routes, no modern economy can function properly. We hope that the current crisis will serve to clarify these priorities and lead to a clear action plan and timeline that offers a horizon of hope to the citizens who today, and for far too long, have been suffering this chaos.