Isla maintains that the transfer of commuter rail services "cannot be reversed" and promises a rail plan for the coming decades.

BarcelonaIn the face of the railway chaos in Catalonia, the president of the Generalitat (Catalan regional government), Salvador Illa, asks for patience and offers a helping hand to the groups to find solutions for a service that, in his opinion, "is not working": "As president, I reiterate my apologies." This was the message the Socialist leader issued at the start of the plenary session this Tuesday in the Parliament to analyze what is wrong with the commuter trains, what the government can do, and what the future holds for the transfer agreed upon with the ERC (Republic of Catalonia). A transfer that, as the president himself emphasized, "is being fulfilled and there is no turning back." "We are in the final phase of the transfer," he said, following the controversy over the pact between the Ministry of Transport and the unions. so that the new Cercanías Catalunya operator will be a subsidiary of Renfe.

A couple of weeks ago, the opposition cornered the president for the black week on the Catalan railway network that ended with passengers walking along the tracks in Bellvitge After a handful of days of daily incidents, Isla dodged the urgent request from Junts, the PP, Vox, and the Catalan Alliance, and pledged to do so at the special plenary session this Tuesday, at the request of ERC, the Comuns, and the CUP. Beyond improving user information, one of the Catalan executive's lines of work, the president has also pledged not to neglect service planning: thus, he promised that the Generalitat will approve a "railway strategy" for Catalonia for the coming decades in 2025. It will include a service and infrastructure plan, and, if appropriate, a reform of the Catalan railway law. While waiting for this strategy to be implemented, the Catalan president maintains that a "progressive" improvement in the service will be noticeable in the coming months.

The opposition is targeting Paneque

Despite the Government's attempts to calm the opposition by reminding everyone that there are some 200 improvement projects underway, the groups have warned the Socialist government that it cannot simply ask for patience for two years—the improvement horizon set by Territorio—and that emergency measures are needed. Above all, this will allow users to organize themselves if there are cancellations or delays and for Renfe and Adif to get their act together. From Junts, Salvador Vergés has attacked the PSC for not mentioning the low level of execution of state investments in the railway network or taking advantage of the fact that, between 2018 and 2025, they held the presidency of Renfe: "Renfe with AND of Spain in its oppression and offence", has criticized. From the Esquerra, the deputy Ester Capella has considered it inadmissible that the Government is looking into the works for bad service and has urged it to "fiscalitzar" Renfe and Adif.

The opposition has placed the Minister of Territory, Transition in the target Ecològica i Habitatge, Sílvia Paneque: ERC, Together and the CUP will propose to reprobate it in this monograph - the votes will be said - from now on, the councils and the anticapitalists go further and demand the cessation "This is in an emergency situation", said the CUP deputy Dani. Cornellà. "I the PSC vol fer believes that it is all the fault of the PP's disinvestment," he said. The commoners have sued Paneque "nervi" for resolving the situation, because they attribute the problems to the department for having prioritized the AVE for giving rise to the Rodalies or the lack of coordination between Renfe and Adif: "The works are poorly planned," said the spokesperson for the commons, David Cid. The PP and Vox have charged against the transfer, while Aliança Catalana has attributed the mess with the trains to the "failure of autonomy."

The improvement comes through the transfer.

From the rostrum of the Parliament, Paneque defended the transfer of the Cercanías (Commuter Rail) system as the way to resolve the railway chaos and emphasized that "shared management" has been a constant in Catalonia's historic agreements. The transfer agreement allows, in his opinion, the Generalitat (Catalan government) to "lead" the joint venture through the board of directors, despite the fact that the majority of its shares will be in the hands of the State: "This fact loses neither value nor meaning in guaranteeing the service's operational capacity based on a sound agreement with the workers." The message was directed at to the Renfe drivers who have opposed this transfer from the beginning. Isla has expressed himself along the same lines, and has also thanked them for their daily work in the service.

Beyond the transfer, Paneque has assured that the Generalitat will promote a "resounding" action throughout the railway network: among others, with the renewal of catenaries, the improvement of signaling and the renewal of the fleet of convoys, with A hundred new trains will be added this yearThe minister admitted the network's "structural deficiencies," but, in the face of calls for her resignation, she urged people not to look for culprits, but rather for "solutions." One of these deficiencies is the out-of-service trains: 24% of commuter trains are not running, and 109 of the 264 elevators and escalators in stations are not working, she explained.

The debate has also left a rift between Junts, on the one hand, and the Comuns and ERC, on the other. Republicans and Comuns have criticized Junts for the entry of economist Eduard Gràcia—a Junts supporter—into Renfe. as ERC spokesperson in Parliament, Gabriel Rufián, already did.Salvador Vergés has retorted: "Let us wage our war with Trojan horses," he said, after accusing the Republicans, Socialists, and Comuns of wanting to sell a "false" transfer for the second time—the first, he said, was during the tripartite government—"with Renfe inside." Capella blamed CiU and said they governed from 2010 onward, and Cid accused Junts of trying to hide Gràcia's appointment and now present him as a Catalan "almogavar" on a board of directors.