"Oh, it's difficult to say when the works will begin. It's a complex, very important and strategic line for the country. The urban planning part has been done since 2010 and now we will have to start with studies and projects. It won't be tomorrow; these infrastructures cost". These are statements by the Minister of Economy, Alícia Romero, to Catalunya Ràdio about the macro-project that has been decisive to unblock the approval of the budgets: the orbital railway line. ERC wants to reactivate a plan that has been in a drawer for twenty years to give its "yes" to the accounts. In fact, the Republicans present it as a future bet for a network that this year has experienced an unprecedented crisis and is still trying to recover some semblance of normality.

Halt to the expansion of 24-hour supermarkets in the city of Barcelona. This Wednesday morning, the municipal government of Jaume Collboni has announced that it is temporarily suspending the granting of new licenses to self-service and super-service establishments that can open 24 hours. The suspension is effective immediately, as it was published this morning in the Official Gazette of the Province of Barcelona (BOPB), and will be valid for one year. During this time, the council assures that it wants to work on new planning "that allows for the protection of local commerce, the preservation of commercial diversity, and the avoidance of saturation and monoculture processes in certain areas of the city", as stated in a press release.

This afternoon, the Department of Education has sent its proposal for negotiation to the unions. As detailed in the document made public by CGT and USTEC, the Government will put on the table the option of advancing by one year the already agreed salary increase and the possibility of making a "remuneration improvement" through the bonuses that teachers receive for being responsible for tutoring. Although sources from Education insist that they will not explain or confirm the details of the proposal until after the meeting with the unions, CGT and USTEC have sent the same working document to the press with the Department of Education's watermark.

It has gone from being a project kept in a drawer since 2010 to becoming the protagonist of the budget negotiations between the PSC and ERC. At ARA we explain what the Orbital Railway Line (LOF) is in seven key points:

The health crisis triggered by the hantavirus outbreak on the luxury cruise ship ‘MV Hondius’ remains open as new cases of possible infections emerge. At ARA, we try to summarize the state of affairs in these graphics.

The luxury cruise ship MV Hondius arrived early this morning at the port of Granadilla, in Tenerife, after days sailing the Atlantic under the watchful eye of the whole world due to the deadly hantavirus outbreak, which has already claimed three lives and affects at least 8 passengers. The ship set sail from Ushuaia, Argentina, on April 1, 2026. At ARA, we have compiled what is known so far about the evolution of the outbreak, case by case, according to official WHO reports.

After days of indecision, the luxury cruise ship MV Hondius, which is docked in Cape Verde affected by a hantavirus outbreak, will finally disembark at a port in the Canary Islands. This has been agreed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Spanish Ministry of Health, following an inspection of the ship by a group of epidemiologists and in compliance with international law and the humanitarian spirit. There are 147 people on board, and seven have been affected by hantavirus, three of whom have died.

Fewer (polluting) cars and more bicycles. The Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB) council has approved this Tuesday the new Metropolitan Urban Mobility Plan (PMMU) 2025-2030, which foresees restricting the passage of vehicles with a yellow sticker through low-emission zones (ZBE) within two years, in 2028. It is the second attempt to deploy this protection belt for air quality, after the pandemic frustrated the initial plan to extend the ban to the yellow sticker as early as 2022. The AMB's proposal is based on the Generalitat's current regulatory framework, which obliges cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants to limit this type of vehicle, first for cars and motorcycles and, later (in 2030), for heavy vehicles. However, the same entity admits that it does not have the capacity to force municipalities to apply the restrictions, nor to make use of the sanctioning regime.

"Public transport should be considered an essential service, just like education or healthcare." This is one of the maxims of Joan Carles Salmerón, the director of the Centre d'Estudis del Transport Tèrminus and one of the experts in mobility in Catalonia. This week he has presented the book The bus and coach in Catalonia, the first publication that collects the entire history of the sector. All of this, at a time when buses have taken over from Rodalies, which is still struggling to recover from the crisis opened in January, after the fatal accident in Gelida.

Change of direction in the process to modernize the more than 800 intercity bus lines in Catalonia. As ARA has learned, the Government is reportedly working to extend the concessions again with the same operators and thus maintain a system that has been running for more than two decades with expired contracts. The fact is that the current licenses – already extended in 2003 for another 25 years – expire very soon, in 2028, and everything indicates that the Department of Territory is now studying a new extension, which could last for another decade. Industry sources consider the technical agreement a done deal and point out that only political approval is needed, expected in the coming weeks.

The Secretary of Mobility and Infrastructures of the Generalitat, Manel Nadal, admitted today that Barcelona needs "at least five or six bus stations and interchanges" to cope with the strong demand the sector has experienced in recent years, and more especially since January, when the Rodalies crisis broke out. He said this at an event organized by the sector's employers' association, Fecav, which this Tuesday presented – together with the Terminus Transport Studies Centre – the book L'autobús i l'autocar a Catalunya, the first publication to cover the entire history of the sector, written by expert Joan Carles Salmerón. At the event, the Secretary of Mobility addressed the assembled entrepreneurs, to whom he also set homework.

Jaume Collboni's City Council is moving forward in defining what Barcelona's new Rambla will be like, which has been undergoing a major transformation for months. This Monday, the council announced that they have already initiated the procedures to declare this emblematic Barcelona avenue as a "terrace excellence zone." In practice, this means that the terraces installed on La Rambla after the works will have to have the same aesthetic style and a homogeneous design.

It was the worst moment of the railway crisis. There were disruptions on practically all lines, multiple daily alerts indicating problems with Rodalies (commuter rail) and more speed restrictions than ever. Users were at their limit and, to top it off, the train drivers went on strike. All this happened last February, when the Rodalies service experienced one of the most complicated moments in its history. Far from what users perceived, however, the statistics compiled by Renfe to analyze delays point in another direction: according to the operator, in February trains had an average delay of only 2 and a half minutes. speed restrictions than ever. Users were at their limit and, to top it off, the train drivers went on strike. All this happened last February, when the Rodalies service experienced one of the most complicated moments in its history. Far from what users perceived, however, the statistics compiled by Renfe to analyze delays point in another direction: according to the operator, in February the trains had an average delay of only 2 and a half minutes.This is reflected in theMonthly Report on Commuter Rail Service Punctuality that Renfe prepares for all autonomous communities each month. It specifies that the delay is 2 and a half minutes if all trains are taken into account (punctual, early, and delayed) and that, if only the trains that are late are taken into account, then the average delay climbs to 26 minutes. But how is it explained that the month when the network worked worst, with a train drivers' strike included, the trains were delayed so little on average? Renfe explains that this statistic only takes into account delays that are "attributable to the operator and over which Renfe can act to improve", and not any other external element, such as all infrastructure incidents, for example. In fact, Renfe's figures indicate that if only problems arising from the operator itself are taken into account, 90% of trains were delayed by less than five minutes. On the other hand, if all circumstances are added up, only 16% of trains arrived on time. "The publication of this data – continue the operator's spokespeople – is a further step in the transparency policy that no other operator is undertaking," they point out.The company's own president, Álvaro Fernández Heredia, explained it this way in a message responding to the spokesperson for the Dignitat a les Vies platform, Anna Gómez, on the social network X.

It was one of the reasons that generated the most warnings from train drivers during the peak moments of the railway crisis: the number of trees that fell on or very close to the train tracks has forced Adif to cut down 13,680 trees between January and March. The rain and wind storms Harry and Ingrid exposed the weakness of the Catalan railway network in the face of meteorological inclemencies, and this is reflected in Adif's statistics. Of the total trees felled during this period, the infrastructure manager removed 8,380 as part of its usual vegetation control plan and an additional 5,300 trees as part of the emergency plan for the storms. The most affected area was the Maçanet-Portbou route, in the north of the country.

The Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, met this morning at first light with the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, at Palau, to address the situation in which Renfe's commuter service in Catalonia has been immersed since the crisis opened in January, with the accidents in Adamuz and Gelida. This is the first meeting between the two leaders since the railway crisis broke out, almost three months ago. Puente and Illa arranged this meeting by taking advantage of the fact that the minister has been in Barcelona since yesterday because he attended the first edition of the AENA literary awards last night.

Problems are piling up on the R2 Sud Rodalies line, in Garraf, since the tunnel maintenance works began two weeks ago. The alternative transport plan designed to ensure train circulation while the work continues is not working. The reason? Some of the drivers have refused to work with the new schedules defined by Renfe for this operation, which has rendered the new timetable for the trains useless, as they now run on a single track due to the works. The Spanish drivers' union Semaf alleges that the company did not comply with the established deadlines to give sufficient notice of the changes.

The tragedies in Adamuz and Gelida in January, which caused 47 fatalities, cast doubt on the entire Spanish railway system, not only because the accidents called into question the maintenance and safety of the network, but also because since then train travel has not been the same. In Catalonia, Rodalies still suffers from line closures, speed restrictions and service delays, and high-speed journey times have lengthened. Trips from Barcelona to Madrid now take half an hour longer due to the system, and there are unexpected delays and stops on the tracks without anyone providing any explanation to users. The reason is the speed restrictions imposed by the ministry – especially on the Zaragoza-Calatayud stretch – following incidents reported by train drivers. What complaints are we talking about? Were there more incidents than usual after Adamuz? Did the labor dispute between the Semaf union and the ministry, which ended in a strike, have anything to do with it? And more importantly, what actions has Transport taken to resolve the state of the infrastructure? ARA made a transparency request to the Spanish government to clarify these points, but the request has been rejected. In other words, the public administration has refused to release this information, and the Communications Department of the Ministry of Transport refers to the official response given through the transparency process.

For over a week now, the intercity bus stop on Gran Via, located between Aribau and Muntaner streets, has been teeming with activity. From six in the evening onwards, it becomes an unstoppable hive of activity: buses double-parked, horns blaring, and passengers rushing from work to get home to the various towns in the Garraf region, where these buses serve. Where three buses used to stop, up to six now stop—double the usual number. The reason? Once again, the economic crisis and the commuter rail construction.

Nearly 70% of Catalan municipalities are now considered high or very high risk areas for flooding and are therefore required to have a flood preparedness and action plan in case of heavy rain. This is according to the updated Inuncat plan, approved by the Catalan government on Tuesday, which raises the number of municipalities at risk to 656 (164 more than before). The remaining 231 municipalities are considered moderate or low risk; however, Civil Protection recommends that they also have their action plans ready. After 20 years in effect, the Inuncat plan has been updated to adapt to the effects of climate change. The new document—work on since the pandemic—includes a thorough review of the calculation criteria and the way warnings are communicated to the public. According to government and Civil Protection sources, the new criteria are already in place "internally," but they clarify that the official change and the implementation of the new system throughout the territory will take place "during the month of April," once all computer systems have been adapted.

The southern commuter rail corridor, one of the most strained sections of the Catalan rail network, continues to face setbacks. This March, it was announced that one of the key projects intended to improve train capacity and flow on this section of the R2 South line—the quadrupling of the tracks between Castelldefels and El Prat—has been stalled once again and is now pushed back to well beyond 2030. The reason? A change of heart by the Ministry of Transport has sent the project back to square one: the initial administrative procedures must begin anew, rendering the original timeline meaningless. Adding these tracks to the R2 line is considered one of the most significant actions in the Commuter Rail Plan in terms of improving capacity in this area. The project is not new; it first appeared in the 2020 Commuter Rail Plan. In mid-2024, with Adif's approval, the construction project was drafted. At that time, the work was considered simply an "expansion" of the existing infrastructure, which technically allowed bureaucratic steps to move forward.