The Catalan government's 'horrible' week due to the commuter rail chaos

BarcelonaLast week's fatal commuter train accident in Gelida has triggered the most serious crisis the Salvador Illa government has faced to date. On Tuesday night, the news about The derailment of an R4 train in Gelida with the death of one of the train drivers The train's derailment shook a deteriorating rail network. The severity of the accident led Renfe, with the approval of the Catalan government and Adif (the Spanish rail infrastructure manager), to suspend commuter rail service until the safety of passengers could be guaranteed. Meanwhile, the government urgently organized a coordination group with Renfe and Adif—which met at the Department of Territory morning and afternoon over the following days—to try to manage a crisis that was escalating with each passing day. But coordination was conspicuously absent. What went wrong?

With Salvador Illa hospitalized, the Minister of the Presidency, Albert Dalmau, took charge of the crisis, along with the Minister of Territory and government spokesperson, Sílvia Paneque—who is responsible for infrastructure. The day after the accident, with service suspended, Adif informed the Catalan government that, after inspecting the tracks, the network was suitable for trains to resume running that same Thursday. However, Adif's assessment did not align with the actions of the train drivers, who believed that the network's safety could not yet be guaranteed and refused to restart the service. That Thursday began with further disruption to the commuter rail network. The government interpreted the drivers' decision as a form of boycott. de facto to the decision made by Adif, Renfe, and the government itself. The largest train drivers' union, Semaf, however, maintains that they took a stand because the certificate presented by Adif was insufficient to guarantee the safety of the service. On Thursday at midday, it was agreed to carry out further inspections with Renfe technicians, but also with representatives of the train drivers. After receiving favorable reports, the Catalan government announced the resumption of service for Friday, a decision that had the support of the train drivers.

Trains began running, but with delays and some interruptions. Meanwhile, the lack of coordination between the government and the two operators was becoming evident. The government saw that communication was not flowing, that Renfe and Adif were promising one thing, but the reality was turning out to be something else. In the afternoon, a new coordination meeting was convened—there had been another landslide on the R1 line earlier—which would be a marathon meeting, in which Dalmau demanded that Renfe and Adif accelerate the inspection of all the tracks. The meeting ended in the early hours of the morning with both operators confirming that trains could not run the following day due to unsuitable conditions. The Catalan government issued a statement, also in the early hours, to inform the media.

The arrival of Santano

On Saturday, however, without Renfe will inform the Government beforehand, and will put the trains into service. —albeit partially— in a unilateral decision. The company's spokesperson in Catalonia, Antonio Carmona, had to publicly justify it: Renfe had "worked" to try to guarantee mobility that Saturday and that the situation had "evolved" from 3:00 a.m. until 6:00 a.m., when some trains began running. This highlights the lack of coordination between the three parties, and this ends up being the trigger that leads the Catalan government to take decisive action: Regional Minister Dalmau asks the Ministry of Transport to intervene to bring order to the operations of Renfe and Adif, companies that are state-owned. And it is precisely that Saturday that the Secretary of State for Transport, José Antonio Santano, arrives in Catalonia. In fact, the high-ranking Spanish government official joins the morning meeting, where he confirms that coordination and communication have failed. Santano will remain in Barcelona until Wednesday afternoon.

On Sunday afternoon, Santano and Paneque held a press conference to explain that the commuter rail service would resume the following day, Monday, and attempted to demonstrate full coordination and that the situation was being resolved. That Sunday evening, Dalmau went to Vall d'Hebron Hospital to explain the situation to Isla and assure her that there would be trains the next day. During this visit, they considered the possibility of Dalmau appearing before the Catalan Parliament to explain the entire crisis. Calls for the Minister's resignation had begun to arrive from opposition groups, such as Junts, but also from some of her coalition partners, such as ERC. In recent days, Isla had been in constant contact with Dalmau, as well as with Paneque; in addition to maintaining dialogue with the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, and the Spanish Prime Minister himself, Pedro Sánchez.

The chaos of Monday

The promised resumption of service on Sunday has once again fallen through. Adif is experiencing a computer error. the command center it has at França station and causes the service to stop twice before 8:00 a.m., rush hour. Chaos once again grips the rail network, and the government loses patience: it demands resignations from Renfe and Adif, which They finally materialized on Monday afternoon.On Tuesday, with the commuter rail service back in operation, albeit still experiencing delays, the Catalan government began preparing to face criticism in Parliament, where Dalmau was scheduled to appear the following day. The Minister of the Presidency and Silvia Paneque visited Isla the day before the plenary session to prepare for Dalmau's appearance. The government had held a videoconference with the parliamentary groups to update them on the current situation. All groups participated except Vox. Simultaneously, the executive also held in-person meetings with its coalition partners, Esquerra Republicana (ERC) and Comuns. However, most groups criticized the government's handling of the crisis, a sentiment that became evident on Wednesday in Parliament when all parties—except Comuns—again demanded the resignation of the Minister of Territory. That same Wednesday, the government made another move: it reached an agreement with the Spanish government and also with ERC that Òscar Playà, the head of the new commuter rail operator, will also take over as head of Renfe Catalunya.The latest chapter, so far, in a crisis that could reopen at any moment.