The works on the suburban railway in Sant Vicenç de Calders are becoming more complicated and some of the problems will be prolonged

TarragonaThe works to adapt the Roda de Berà tunnel and this entire section to international gauge have become more complicated and the effects suffered by travellers will not end on 3 March, as initially planned. The works to benefit the Mediterranean Corridor They started on October 1st and since then all users who want to go by train from the south of the country to Barcelona or vice versa have to take a bus because the service is interrupted in Sant Vicenç de Calders. From March the works enter a new phase that will facilitate the mobility of a significant number of passengers, but will also make it even more difficult for others. However, whatever Renfe line the passengers use, the first weekend of March and Monday morning, March 3, they will have to be patient.

The reason for this mishap has been the delay in the delivery of some "track devices" that Adif had ordered, as reported this morning by the director of Cercanías, Antonio Carmona. All this will cause the circulation of trains in the south of Catalonia not to return to normal until May 25 and that all the improvements that should allow these works that are complicating the lives of travelers so much will not become effective until September.

March 1, 2 and 3

This weekend will be the most complicated of all because "some software operations", as Carmona explained, will force a "total interruption of train traffic at Sant Vicenç de Calders station". This means that all the lines that until now stopped at this station, during the first weekend of March and on Monday 3 in the morning, will only go as far as Cunit. Travellers who want to go to Barcelona will have to take the same shuttle buses they used until now and go to Cunit, where they can take a train that will take them to the Catalan capital. The lines affected by this new change are the R2 south, R13, R14, R15, R16 and R17. Users of the R4, which connects Sant Vicenç de Calders with Manresa, will have to stop in El Vendrell and take a bus that will take them to Sant Vicenç de Calders.

As if it weren't complicated enough, it's Carnival weekend, so there's expected to be more traffic than usual. Renfe will be using 105 buses to try to minimise the headaches for travellers. These disruptions will still be in place on Monday morning and, if all goes well, will end at 3pm.

From 3 March to 25 May

Once the difficult test of the first weekend in March is over, users will still have to adapt to new changes, which will remain in place, if nothing goes wrong, until May 25. With this new change, the luckiest passengers will be those on lines R14, R15, R16 and R17, who will now be able to go from the south to Barcelona without having to take a shuttle bus. However, if they want to get off at Sant Vicenç de Calders station, they will not be able to do so and will have to go to Torredembarra and, now, take a shuttle bus to go to Sant Vicenç.

The frequency of all these lines will improve and instead of a train passing every hour in each direction, one will pass every half hour. These are the luckiest, because passengers on the inland line, that is, the R13, which connects Barcelona with Lleida passing through Valls, will see their trips lengthen considerably. Users leaving or going to Lleida will have to take the R14 line, but those from Valls who want to go to one of these two destinations will have to go to La Plana and there take a shuttle train that will take them to Sant Vicenç de Calders, where they will have to get off to take another train that will take them to Barcelona or Lleida. During rush hour there will also be two buses available to travellers that will connect Valls with Barcelona via Roda de Mar.

Representatives of Renfe and Adif have explained all these new incidents to the affected mayors and to the Government delegate in Camp de Tarragona, Lucía López, in a telematic meeting this Thursday.