I would have preferred to go to Girona by train, because with high speed it's a breeze, but I went by car. It took almost three times as long and, according to ChatGPT, I emitted almost five times more CO₂. But that way I made sure to arrive on time, calculating, of course, a generous margin for my departure time, just in case the ring roads had an unpleasant surprise in store for me, which wasn't the case.
As I was passing truck after truck on the AP-7, I was listening to a radio interview with the Secretary of State for Transport, José Antonio SantanoTemporarily assigned to Catalonia to bring order to the commuter rail operation, where the key concept ended up being "regaining user confidence."
Mission impossible, at least for the next few years. Renfe and Adif have been forever tarnished by the thousands of people from two generations who have to endure their incompetence almost every day. And years will pass before we see modern, clean trains that depart and arrive on time at comfortable stations, where escalators and elevators work, and the information on the screens about platforms and timetables is as reliable as the time on a mobile phone clock—all on tracks that are under continuous maintenance.
My trip lasted a day, but the people who appear in media reports explaining their daily ordeal—because they can't afford any other way to get to work—may one day, in the distant future, regain faith in state-run trains. What they won't recover are the hours of their lives that have been stolen while they continue to pay their taxes, because they are much more than mere users or customers. They are citizens.
