The State guarantees work for Renfe workers who move to the new Cercanías

BarcelonaBefore the bilateral infrastructure commission meeting on Monday afternoon, the Catalan Government and Esquerra wanted to publicly stage one of the agreements on the transfer of Cercanías that were signed hours later by the Catalan and Spanish executives. This is the timetable for having the new Cercanías operator ready: both parties have agreed that the company will be established before the end of 2025 and that, therefore, from 2026 it will already manage the entire railway system in Catalonia. The agreement was publicly announced by the regional minister for Territory, Silvia Paneque, and the general secretary of ERC, Elisenda Alamany, and was validated by the bilateral Infrastructure commission, headed by Paneque herself and the Secretary of State for Mobility and Transport, José Antonio Santano Clavero.

"We have laid the groundwork for the creation of a joint venture, with the majority participation of the Generalitat, which will manage the Cercanías and which will have the necessary means independently of Renfe," said Alamany, who presented the agreement as a "historic step" so that the "Commuter network is managed from Catalonia." Paneque, for his part, has argued that management "from proximity" is more "efficient" and has opted for a "planned transition" with Renfe so that the labour rights of all staff can be maintained. In this sense, Santano wanted to give a message of "calm" to the workers: "They are fully protected."

Since the agreement for the transfer of Cercanías was made public, there have been voices within Renfe that have opposed it. One of the things that worries the State is precisely that of the workers, who were mostly against becoming dependent on the Generalitat. They will not do so: the model of consortium between institutions will place them under a new umbrella, in which the Spanish government guarantees the conditions they had until now.

The transfer of Cercanías is part of the agreement that the Republicans signed with the PSOE In exchange for supporting Pedro Sánchez's investiture and the constitution of the joint venture, this was one of the issues that had been stuck for months. The agreement with the Republicans established that the new operator will have equal representation between Renfe (dependent on the Ministry of Transport) and the Government, which will have a casting vote and will also elect the president of the entity. With the change of government, the drafting of the statutes was paralyzed and with the arrival of Salvador Illa to the government, Paneque promised to have them before the end of 2024. Now both parties have agreed that they will be ready this coming March.

This is where issues such as the company model or also what strategic decisions will be adopted by qualified majority will have to be put in writing. "We are not talking about a subsidiary, but about a joint venture in which for the first time it is clear that Catalonia will manage its commuter network," Alamany said. To take this step and form this company, Paneque explained that first all the Cercanías personnel who are now part of Renfe will have to be "segregated". It is in this transition that a subsidiary of Renfe would be formed. For Junts, the fact that the company has state participation means a transfer of Cercanías fake, because they claim that the State has the last word.

The transfer of R1

The legal process to prepare this company will last all this year with the aim, said the minister, that this new operator "manages the entire system" of Cercanías from January 1, 2026. This does not mean that at that time all the tracks have already been transferred, but Paneque has differentiated both processes. In fact, just a few weeks ago the executive council approved making effective the transfer of the first Cercanías line, the R1, which goes from Molins de Rei to Maçanet de la Selva. In the bilateral meeting this afternoon, the Generalitat and the Spanish government also addressed this issue and agreed to take a further step: in the next three months the inventory of the "facilities, assets and other elements to be transferred" must be completed, in addition to an "economic assessment of the costs linked to the service to be transferred".

Once the inventory has been made, it will still have to go through the transfer commission and the joint commission for economic and fiscal affairs to validate it before taking it to the council of ministers, which must give the final green light. From here, the agreement with Adif should be finalized to define how this service will be managed, as well as to analyze whether it is necessary to make improvements to the tracks and structures of the line. The transfer of the R1 will be a pilot test to also apply to other lines. The R2 and R3 were the next ones that were planned to be transferred throughout 2025, although a date has not yet been set to begin the procedures.

The commuter rail plan until 2030 and the N-II

Apart from the transfer, the Generalitat and the State have also made progress on the commuter rail plan until 2030, which includes various actions in stations such as the intermodal stations in Tarragona and Martorell or the duplication of the Montcada Bifurcació-Puigcerdà line. Paneque and Santano have also agreed to complete the agreement between both administrations to move forward in the "pacification" of the N-II in Maresme and improve the "connectivity" of the C-32; in addition to authorizing the deployment of optical fiber in various sections of state-owned roads in areas of the Pyrenees and also in Terres de l'Ebre.