The commuter rail service will be Free in Catalonia until further noticeOn the days it's working, of course. Also, until further notice, the Secretary of State for Transport and Sustainable Mobility, José Antonio Santano, the number two to Minister Óscar Puente, has been sent to Barcelona without a return ticket to "strengthen direct oversight and expedite decisions" in the face of the "railway chaos" in Catalonia. It sounds almost like exile, like a high-ranking official who has fallen from grace and is sent to the colonies as punishment. It also somewhat recalls the gesture of General de Gaulle, who supposedly vowed not to change his underwear until France was liberated from Nazi occupation. It was an unpopular measure among the general's inner circle.
Jokes are a way to approach a problem when the solution isn't even in sight. No one dares predict when Catalonia will have a fully "normal" and "safe" rail service (the two words that sum up the mess), and one can't even speak of a "return" to these conditions, because normality has long since disappeared from the Catalan commuter rail network. The socialist governments of Catalonia and Madrid have opted to acknowledge the deterioration of the rail infrastructure. This acknowledgment is framed in political language: that is, with an abundance of adjectives and a scarcity of details. It's not so much about providing a precise diagnosis (no one has one) as it is about avoiding accusations of hiding the truth or trying to downplay the problem. That's why both Regional Minister Paneque and Minister Puente don't hold back when describing the situation: deplorable, horrendous, lamentable, etc.
The effort has a commendable aspect (not falling into denial of the problem), but it also doesn't prevent inconsistencies, errors, or –as Antoni Bassas mentioned a few days ago– unfortunate remarks, referring to the day spokesperson Paneque stated that the commuter rail service was "in a deplorable state, much worse than we could have imagined." The statement, in effect, implies that they hadn't verified the facts, but rather were discussing the commuter rail issue based on what they "imagined." Related to this is the issue of the degradation of language in the political sphere: debates almost never focus on anything concrete, but rather on the discourse—the narrative—that each party has generated from certain events, and its contrast with the discourse—the narrative—generated by the opposing side. When these discourses or narratives ultimately clash with reality, they shatter, leaving a desolate void, before which all that remains is to acknowledge that everything is worse than it could have seemed.
Public services are never "free": we, the taxpayers, pay for them with our taxes, so we have the right to demand that they be managed based on reality and not on the whims of those in power. One of the great things about democracy is paying taxes and having quality public services for everyone. Let's emphasize that: quality and for everyone.
