Puente urges Catalonia to clarify its position with commuter rail: "Either we cut lines or we carry out construction while we provide the service."

Barcelona / MadridChaos in Cercanías, especially notable in March, has arrived this Wednesday with force to the plenary session of Congress. With the debate on The real scope of the transfer agreed between the PSOE and ERC is looming over the session.The Spanish government has defended itself against criticism from Catalan parties and users. And while it apologized for the repeated incidents in recent weeks, Transport Minister Óscar Puente attributed them mainly to the improvement works on the rail network. "Either we cut lines or we carry out works while providing the service," he said, defending himself from criticism and putting the "dilemma" on the Catalan people: "Let's be aware that if we balance service provision and investments, the incidents will continue."

Puente spoke in response to an interpellation from ERC (Republican Revolutionary Party), in which Republican MP Inés Granollers denounced the "chaos that has taken place" on Catalonia's trains. While he was speaking, Renfe was reporting new delays on lines R2 Sur, R14, R15, R16, and R17 due to two incidents: at the facilities between Cunit and Sant Vicenç de Calders and between Garraf and Sitges. "Do you know how people suffer? Think about the citizens," he told the minister, also criticizing him for the lack of investment in the commuter train system. In response, Puente apologized to users but categorically rejected Esquerra's accusations: "The incidents are in no way due to a lack of investment. On the contrary [...], most are due precisely to the confluence of actions and the commissioning of renovated infrastructure."

The intervention of the Minister of Transport came after the control session of the Spanish president himself, to whom Republican Gabriel Rufián has asked about the "hell" of the commuter trains., expressed "empathy" with users and then called for "an increase in the state budget" to improve the service. Puente added: "I don't deny that in Catalonia there has been a lack of investment for many years [...] but we are not sitting idly by." He added that "the increase in investment is undeniable" because in 2024 Catalonia was "the region with the highest investment."

The minister points to "vandalism"

The minister, however, reviewed each of the railway problems of the last month and highlighted the causes to bolster his narrative. He mentioned the construction of the Roda de Berà tunnel, the implementation of the third rail of the Mediterranean Corridor, and the renovation work at Sants station, among others, along with "external" reasons such as the weather and a driver's "incorrect maneuver."

He also highlighted the incidents caused by acts of vandalism and accused the Catalan political parties of failing to condemn him: "I want to remind you that more than half of the acts of vandalism on the entire Spanish rail network occur in the Barcelona area, and this is an inconvenience for all rail users in Catalonia."

In the final stretch of his speech, Puente expressed his "hurt" at the attitude of the Catalan political parties and asked them to "reflect on the issue." "I understand people's anger, but we're not doing any good if, through politics, we further inflame people and don't explain things. We can't tell the citizens of Catalonia, in their despair, that the problem is a lack of investment. It's pouring fuel on the fire," he said, reiterating that "a lot of work is being done on the rail network" and that "they're going to work."

Catalonia, fifth from the bottom in construction

What's true about Puente's words? In recent years, the PSOE government has boosted rail investment in Catalonia—with 2.222 billion since 2018—and in 2024, a record 607 million was budgeted for commuter rail. But the execution of the investment is another matter. For example, in the case of the first half of 2023 –the last period with available data–, Adif (without taking into account high speed) had executed 94 million euros of the 1,080 million planned for the entire year and the operator Renfe just over 36 million of a planned investment of 151 million.

However, if we look a little further back, the budget execution data from the Ministry of Finance between 2015 and the first half of 2022, analyzed by ACN, places Catalonia fifth and last in the Spanish state in territorialized investments by Renfe, Adif, and Adif-Alta Velocitat. During this period, investments worth €6.194 billion were projected in the Catalan regions linked to the three railway companies. However, actual spending was €2.171 billion in the same period, 35.1% of the total, a percentage lower than the Spanish average (41%) and ten points below the Community of Madrid (45.8%).

In the investment debate, there is also another factor to consider: the gap between the money allocated to the conventional rail network and that for high-speed rail. This is demonstrated by Airef's transport infrastructure study (Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility) published in 2022: between 1990 and 2018, 3.6 billion euros were invested in conventional services such as Cercanías, which carry the majority of passengers, compared to 55.888 billion euros in high-speed services.

Nearly 200 simultaneous works

The Regional Minister for Territory, Silvia Paneque, attempted to justify the month of chaos on the commuter train network this Wednesday. In an appearance before the Parliament, she defended the nearly 200 projects being carried out simultaneously across the entire network. These include measures such as overhead line renovations, signaling improvements, the elimination of level crossings, station remodeling, track duplication, and the creation of new branches, which the Catalan government expects to be completed before 2027. She also noted that there is an urgent measures plan for this year aimed at improving communication with users so they can be up-to-date.

Paneque admitted that the current network is "fragile, unreliable, and has shortcomings," but also emphasized the Catalan government's commitment to achieving improvements in the "short and medium term." For this reason, he called on the other parliamentary groups to work together and asked them not to exploit the situation for political gain. "Catalonia would not understand a political dispute over a structural issue like this," he said.