1. This was the collapse. The continuous rain, the landslides, the AP-7 wall, and the serious train accident in Gelida paralyzed the country for a week. In the name of safety, Renfe, Adif, the ministry there, and the government here played a farcical role that will have no consequences for any of the four public institutions. For the people and private companies, however, it will. Minor personal dramas greatly anger those who suffer them, but they are merely a side effect that tickles those in power. A user's tantrum rarely goes beyond a token complaint in a NewscastThe burden of having to fend for yourself or of perpetual traffic jams never penalizes those in power.
2. Aside from exceptional situations, the chaos of commuter trains was already an ingrained problem in our lives. On the Cercanías commuter rail, there are no delays: there are routines. Waiting is part of the service, like the hard seats, the overcrowded carriages, or the graffiti that covers everything. People, with a trained complacency, don't complain too much. When things drag on without explanations over the PA system, they check a mobile app that never tells the whole truth. The notification announces a ten-minute delay that will end up being twenty. There are places in the world where people, with deep pockets, pay to slow down time. Spiritual retreats, spas, yoga in select forests, weekends without cell service. In Catalonia, you don't need to spend so much money or go so far. You just have to walk to the station, validate a ticket, and try to catch a Cercanías train on any given weekday. The cliché question on a first date used to be, "Do you study or work?" Now the new way to meet someone is simply to ask, "Do you work or are you local?" That says it all.
3. Who doesn't know of a marriage that ended disastrously because of Renfe (the Spanish national railway company)? Take, for example, a couple from Granollers who have been married for twenty years. He works remotely, while she commutes to Barcelona every day to work as a lawyer. The husband, who stays home, has a mistress and uses every minute to indulge in his misery. Since his wife takes the commuter train home, he has everything planned to avoid getting caught. Until the day that, miraculously, the R1 train leaves on time, there are no technical issues, the overhead power lines are working perfectly, his wife arrives home at the same time, and finds Josep Maria in a state of near-consolation. As a lawyer, she quickly has the divorce papers ready.
4. With Renfe – nothing new – there are always announcements. Improvement plans, transfers that are nothing new, and promised investments with deadlines that stretch as far as the delays themselves. We're always asked for patience. Patience is the public policy of our times, the substitute for responsibility, for not admitting mistakes or giving explanations. If the commuter rail service were working well, it would be almost suspicious. An anomaly within the system. It works exactly as it's designed to: badly, late, and without apology. This is no longer an accident. It's a model. And the message is clear: there are regions where time can wait. There are places that shouldn't prosper. That's why the commuter rail mess has been simmering for half a century of supposed democracy. It's not negligence. It's strategy. Catalonia is screwed over. The worst part isn't the delays anymore. The worst part is the resignation. If no one is outraged, the grievance has triumphed. When waiting becomes the norm, failure no longer makes a sound. People sit on the platform bench and, to avoid confronting the collective decline, entertain themselves by watching TikTok. A country doesn't progress when its trains don't arrive. Catalonia deteriorates when it accepts that its time is worth less. And when this happens, the problem isn't with the railways: it's political. And above all, it's moral.
