When asphalt reaches extreme temperatures in summer or when autumn storms flood the roadway, sustainable mobility faces a challenge of infrastructure and habits. In an inhospitable street, without shade, or on a very wet and slippery street, pedestrians tend to reject walking and the use of bicycles and scooters tends to drop significantly, if not collapse.

In the collective memory of those who traveled through cities during the nineties, that television campaign by the General Directorate of Traffic still resonates, which, under the slogan "Ponte el casco", tried to convince a generation of motorcyclists of the importance of wearing a helmet during their journeys.

The deployment of electric mobility in Barcelona has entered a second phase in which the number of charging points is no longer the only indicator of progress. In Barcelona, the transition has reached a maturity that makes it necessary to rethink the architecture of this public service.

Mobility headaches seem to be unstoppable when it comes to accessing Barcelona. The problems have now also reached an infrastructure that had proven more reliable until now: the metro. A crack in the slab on which the tracks rest, caused by the pressure of groundwater in a tunnel between the Artigues-Sant Adrià and Sant Roc stations, will force the closure of the metro line 2 section between Gorg and La Pau from November 2 to December 3.

The regulations allow it for certain vehicle models, and increasing demand makes it happen often: many passengers who take intercity buses habitually travel standing up. It also happened on Sunday, in the accident of the Sagalés bus in Fogars de Montclús, in the Montseny, which has already left at least 83 injured, twelve of whom are in serious condition. A balance that was closed this Monday evening after the Firefighters were able to remove the vehicle and have ruled out that the accident has caused more victims.

Normal high-speed rail service between Barcelona and Madrid will not be restored until the beginning of next week. This was announced this Wednesday by the new spokesperson for Adif in Catalonia, Antonio Carmona, who explained that the work to remove the train affected by Monday's fire is complex and can only be carried out at night, because it is incompatible with train traffic on the adjacent track.

The high-speed rail between Barcelona and Madrid continues to experience widespread delays caused by the fire of an AVE train near Ricla, in Aragon, and, for the moment, there is no set schedule as to how many days this incident might affect the network's operation. The Minister of Territory, Sílvia Paneque, explained that the disruptions will depend on the days it takes to remove the affected train and that the network will likely continue to suffer delays of about 15 minutes on average over the coming days. "At this moment, they are analyzing how to remove the train with maximum safety; this is what Renfe has conveyed to us. For now, therefore, trains are circulating on a single track, which is what is causing the delays," stated Paneque, who prioritized the need to ensure safety over the full resumption of service.

Sarfa is the red, white, and orange bus company that travels through the Baix Empordà and connects the Costa Brava with Barcelona. Its centenary brand, founded in 1921 and based in Begur, is absolutely integrated into the daily lives of many residents of the Girona regions. Since 2009, it has been part of the Sabadell-based Moventis group, and this 2026, with 240 employees and a fleet of 130 vehicles, it expects to reach 3.5 million passengers and exceed 11.5 million kilometers traveled. In addition to regular interurban transport, it manages more than fifty school routes, international services to France with BlaBlaCar, and corporate transport. At the head of the company is Christian Busquets, born in Platja d'Aro, who assumed the management on January 1st of this year after joining in 2023 as operations director.

New strategy underway to transform the image of public transport in Catalonia. The Department of Territory wants to unify all public transport in Catalonia into a single brand or "umbrella brand," which is currently "fragmented" into different identities. This is stated in a tender that was made public this week, in which the Government is looking for a company to be commissioned with the "conceptualization, design, and creation" of this new brand and the development of a "manual" for its use. The budget is just over 250,000 euros and the deadline to have the new image defined is six months.

Salou grew with tourism and, for decades, the train was one of its main gateways. Now, the old railway corridor is giving way to the TramCamp, in a territory that demands a public transport network on par with the growth of the Costa Daurada. A necessary commitment to mobility that, at the same time, makes a part of the railway landscape that for decades accompanied the transformation of the Camp de Tarragona coast disappear.

More goods on trains and fewer trucks on the roads. With this premise, the Government has made public a plan to grow freight transport by train in Catalonia, with a network of four new railway terminals in five years, which will help reduce the dependence – and congestion – of the road network for the transport of products.

Five years after the end of tolls on the AP-7 and AP-2 —the main motorways in Catalonia—, some 250 economists and mobility experts spent Wednesday morning reflecting on the management of the country's main roads. "As economists, we know that apparently free decisions also generate costs and that, if they are not assigned explicitly and transparently, they fall on taxpayers or are passed on to the future," warned the dean of the Association of Economists of Catalonia (CEC), Carlos Puig de Travy.

Six hours after the accident in which a truck driver died near Montjuïc, the Ronda del Litoral has finally reopened once the tasks to remove the vehicle and clean the area have been completed. Traffic has been very complicated throughout the morning and this road was cut off in the Llobregat direction, disabling all entrances. Only the exits remained open to clear the accident zone and facilitate the work of the rescue teams, as the driver was trapped in the wreckage. Firefighters had been working there since 7:30 a.m.

“I used to work here.” Diana Gabaldón (El Provencio, Cuenca, 1937) points to the old Coma Cros textile factory in Salt, now a cultural hub. By a twist of fate, she now lives opposite it, at the Les Vetes residence. She has left in a wheelchair and is getting onto the En Bici Sense Edat tricycle. It is an electric bicycle with a front bench designed for two people with reduced mobility to ride on. She is 89 years old and can no longer get around Salt on foot, by bike, or by moped, as she did when she was young, but thanks to this volunteering project, she is once again “running” – as she puts it – through the streets she discovered when she arrived from Cuenca at 18 years old.

On the train, extreme heat is no longer just a problem for passengers waiting in the sun or in poorly air-conditioned stations. Deformed tracks, melting materials, and interrupted services: this summer, high temperatures have directly tested European transport infrastructure. In Germany, France, Sweden, Austria, and the United Kingdom, incidents related to extreme heat episodes have been recorded, making it increasingly difficult to adapt networks built decades ago to climatic conditions different from those foreseen when they were designed.

Saturday of problems in Rodalies. Rail traffic has been interrupted since past 5 PM on line R4 between Sabadell Sud and Manresa due to an infrastructure incident between Sabadell Sud and Terrassa Estació del Nord. As reported by Renfe, an alternative road service has been established between Sabadell Sud and Manresa, with intermediate stops, to facilitate passenger mobility.

In March, the Government recovered a project that had been on hold for over fifteen years: the Transversal Railway Axis of Catalonia, a mixed passenger and freight line that would connect Lleida and Girona with high-speed trains directly. That is, without having to pass through the Catalan capital. This Wednesday, work has begun: the Generalitat has announced the start of the drafting of the technical studies necessary before starting its construction. This step is relevant, as it allows the project to be administratively reactivated with a concrete and budgeted first phase.

The great interest in the eclipse has also affected mobility in Catalonia, especially in the south of the country, which has been the most privileged area to see this historic phenomenon. If initially it was the roads that suffered especially from the high influx of vehicles, after the eclipse —and coinciding with the return towards Barcelona— it is on the train where significant crowds have occurred. The stations of Tortosa and Tarragona, packed to the brim, have doubled demand on lines R16 and R15. In fact, Mossos and Renfe staff had to manage access until the last train of the day, around 11 p.m., took all the passengers.

We have serious problems in Catalonia and Spain. And we have arrived where we are because we have not mobilized identified solutions. Planning problems does not solve them, but it creates hope for a solution; it changes the perception of them. Let's list the present problems:Housing: price and accessibility. Education: deterioration of quality and conflict with teachers. Commuter rail: poor service and unresolved management problems, excessive unionism and lack of investment. Environment and agriculture: climate change, fires, outdated food supply chain, excessive bureaucracy. Distribution of public funding between autonomous communities and the central government: insufficient resources for autonomous communities with the largest part of current expenditure. Judiciary: in conflict with the executive and legislative branches. For these problems there are solutions.Housing. Municipalities should be able to transfer land to autonomous communities for 30 years, with the possibility of purchase at the end of the transfer. A public-private company (50%) builds and rents. Public capital provides a 30-year loan at 3%. Private capital, an investment with a 5% indexed remuneration. An 80 m² or 100 m² dwelling built on land transferred by a municipality costs approximately €150,000. The annual costs of a property under these conditions would amount to €7,500: €1,250 for loan interest; €2,500 for capital repayment, and €3,750 for the private investor's dividend.The annual income of a low-to-middle income family, after deducting income tax, is €25,000. Housing costs should be less than 30% of income: €7,500/year. It fits. This is the solution adopted in Austria – 100 years ago – and in the Netherlands – 40 years ago.Education. Resolving the conflict requires management and direction, not bureaucratic practices. The problem is not money – there has been an increase in teacher remuneration – nor the reduction in teacher-student ratios, which have decreased. The problem is the management of schools and the improvement of teacher training: the scientific component must be increased to promote an increase in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) vocations. Today, these studies represent 18% of university students, when they should represent at least 21%, to maintain harmonious development with R&D policies and the modernization of the economy. And students decide what to study while they are in secondary school.In the 2024-2025 academic year, there were approximately 39,000 primary and early childhood teachers in Catalonia, and around 43,000 in secondary and post-compulsory education. After the agreed-upon reforms, this represents an annual expenditure of 5.9 billion euros, to which 2.2 billion must be added for subsidized education. The problem is not economic: there has never been so much money. The negotiation has been union-based and not professional. The authority of school principals is reduced while the selection and promotion of teachers becomes more rigid; the opposite of what is needed. Having teachers as civil servants, and discontented, is a mistake. We are harming ourselves on an issue that is our future. The strength of Catalonia, Spain, and Europe lies in its people, and not excelling in education has a high cost. We are seeing it.Rodalies. The service is bad. In Catalonia there are two networks, with two different gauges that facilitate disintegration: the UIC gauge – which, in communicating Catalonia with Spain and France, must be the responsibility of the central government – and the Iberian gauge. Only commuter and regional trains (and freight that will cease to run in the future) run on this second network. There is an investment deficit of 15,000 millions of euros in this network over 40 years. If we add the new coast line – the current one is precarious – and the garages and workshops, the necessary investment is 20 billion euros. An expense of 2 billion euros over ten years is affordable.Renfe and Adif must be eliminated from Commuter and regional services. They are public companies of the central government, controlled by a corporate union, and in which the maintenance of union power will always be superior to the improvement of the service. This has been seen in recent months. This union, which defends its interests to the detriment of citizens', has fewer than 1,000 members in Catalonia. Overcoming this resistance to establish a new company to manage regional and commuter trains is feasible, despite union opposition. It is better to hire new staff than to "convert" the current ones. Those who do not wish to can stay at Renfe and Adif.An easy and urgent initiative is a train traffic information service that reaches users' mobile phones and allows them to know, in real time, the actual train schedules for that day. It would save thousands of hours for citizens and reduce the annoyance of not knowing when trains will arrive at stations. With current technology, the cost is practically nil.Environment and farming. We need a change in food production to improve efficiency and reduce the impact on the environment. We must increase plant production over animal production, which consumes more water and pollutes more. Eating habits cannot be changed suddenly, but they can be changed progressively with a 20-year policy.Financing. The new financing plan for the Autonomous Communities, pending approval, involves a transfer of €21,000 million per year from the central government to the communities. It is not enough, but it is a step in the right direction. If we don't do it, it will be for reasons of "narrow path" policy.Judiciary. There are more than 5,000 judges in Spain. How is it possible that there are almost no sanctions for inappropriate conduct? Although the majority are competent and carry out their activities professionally, it is not possible for everyone to always do everything well in a group of this size. A reform of the system is necessary, which, today, is politically impossible.I will leave for another article the issue of healthcare – a high-quality but overloaded and unsustainable service, a future problem that needs to be addressed now – and tourism – excessive concentration in peak months, need to reorient the offer towards less quantity and higher quality–. For the rest, it is clear that in many areas – not all – what needs to be done can be done. Politics must serve to solve problems, not to argue. Voters must be clear about this.

The Generalitat's mobility policies receive a significant boost in the 2026 Budgets. The allocations for transport and the improvement of infrastructures and mobility throughout the country are among the fastest growing, with an increase of 30% compared to the last approved accounts. If in 2023 the allocation was 3,067 million euros, it now reaches 3,986 million.