The chaos of Rodalies is an entrenched disaster. Promises of improvement drag on forever. The reality of delays, accidents, and breakdowns persists. Incidents are daily, a living hell for users. The latest rain episodes have once again highlighted the precariousness of a service that has its credibility in the dirt. And the covert strike by train drivers has only further aggravated the situation. Thousands of citizens have been living for a long time, a very long time, a daily disaster.

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.

On Saturday, the trains stopped working as a precaution, between seven in the evening and two in the afternoon the next day. Since the trains run like clockwork and on the day they have to do construction work or there is an incident they treat you like a subject, they ask for your forgiveness, they provide coaches and smile at you, we didn't argue about it. Someone might say it was overzealous, but we are coming from a weekend in which lives have been lost. On Monday, the trains were already running normally, but the alert sounded mid-morning, when we had all dropped off our children and were at our various jobs.

First they said they would be ready in 2025. Then, in the summer of 2026 and later, at the beginning of 2027. Now, however, the schedule is delayed until the spring. The new trains that Alstom is manufacturing for Rodalies are taking a while to arrive. This was admitted this Thursday by the Secretary of State for Transport and Mobility, José Antonio Santano, in a talk at the Cercle d'Economia in Barcelona.

The Minister of Interior, Núria Parlon, defended this Thursday that the mobile alerts for the intense rains on Wednesday night were sent in light of predictions of "sudden" floods. "They do not arrive late, but rather when the population must protect itself," she argued. The minister said this in a joint appearance with the deputy director of Civil Protection of the Generalitat, Sergi Delgado, in which they reported on the management of some downpours that caused the death of a 48-year-old driver in Olivella, in the Garraf region, when he was trying to cross the Begues stream with his car, in addition to cuts on roads and trains, flight cancellations, and various floods.

Another morning of railway chaos on the R2 South line. And, once again, the disruptions have to do with a copper theft in the area of the Estació de França in Barcelona: it is the sixth time in just ten days that the same event has occurred, and Adif confirms that it has again sent its technicians to the area to replace all the stolen material.

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.

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.

Beyond the traffic problems inherent in the railway network, last year it became clear that moving on foot, with reduced mobility, a stroller, or a wheelchair through Rodalies stations was often an insurmountable obstacle course. In March 2025, more than half of the elevators (52%) and almost half of the escalators at Rodalies stations were not working. "The situation was absolutely unsustainable, undesirable, and inadmissible," assures the Minister of Territory, Sílvia Paneque. According to the Government, Renfe, and Adif, this situation of "neglect" has now been reversed.

When at the beginning of the year the big Rodalies crisis broke out –after the fatal accident in Gelida and the numerous damages caused by two storms– many users looked for an alternative to avoid the incidents of the conventional service. Those who could, switched to Avant trains: they are more expensive, but also faster, as they run between cities on the high-speed network with regulated fares, and accumulate many fewer delays. For many travelers, arriving on time for work, a medical appointment, or university has already become a priority that weighs more than the cost of the ticket.

The Minister of Territory, Sílvia Paneque, has presented the "first Railway Services Plan of Catalonia", which states it will organize and reorganize the railway system (and by extension, the mental health and family life of the beloved Antonio Carmona). I read that they will put on more trains, that they will double the kilometers of track, that they will rethink "the timetables, routes, and frequencies of Commuter, medium-distance, and high-speed trains", and that they want to implement "regular and repetitive timetables, easy for passengers to remember, along with the improvement and increase of frequencies throughout the network". And it all seems very good to us that they are moving forward. And that they put on trains, yes. However, that they want – as a plan – to implement repetitive and easy-to-remember timetables for passengers will keep me erotically charged from head to toe until I get my pink card.

Achieving the design of services "good for the whole territory" with the infrastructures we currently have – and those planned in the short term – and doubling the number of users: going from the current 455,000 daily travelers to one million passengers by 2040. This is the premise on which the Generalitat has been working for months and which it made public today with the presentation of the first Railway Services Plan of Catalonia, which should allow the critical situation of the Catalan railway network to be revived. This is how the Minister of Territory, Sílvia Paneque, and the Secretary of Mobility and Infrastructures, Manel Nadal, explained it this Tuesday afternoon. "They always tell us that the most orthodox thing would be to design the services first and then the infrastructures; well, we have done it," said Nadal.

The National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) calculates that more than 509,000 travelers have given up using high-speed trains between Madrid and Barcelona compared to the times when they made the journey in "historical best times".

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:

Everyone who presses the train door button, to get on or off, does the same thing, without exception. On the train, on the plane, not so much on the bus or the subway, we are all flustered. They might tell us, as for example, still in the carriage, that when we get off at Sant Vicenç de Calders, those of us going to Vila-seca will have to change trains, to platform 4, because there is construction. We can see this train from the carriage, yes, on platform 4, and know that there are many of us who will get off and take it, and therefore know that it will wait for us. But we arrive at the station and everyone, everyone in front of the door, shows the same behavior: a completely sterile impatience when pressing the button. We press it many seconds before it's time to do so. The train is still stopping. Most of us take trains every day, more than once. We know perfectly well that we have to wait a few seconds, until it has stopped. But we can't help it. We press the button. And our fellow travelers, those who haven't reached out to press the button, making a colossal effort of restraint, look at us worriedly, with a heavy heart, in case today is the day that, because of us, the train leaves with us inside.

Adif plans to restore freight train traffic through the Rubí tunnel next week. According to the manager of railway infrastructure, from the night of April 28, trains will once again run through this strategic point for the transport of goods by rail to France. This marks the completion of the first phase of the reinforcement, stabilization, and improvement work on the tunnel's infrastructure, which has lasted seven weeks.

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.

The Civil Guard has fewer and fewer hypotheses on the table to try to find out why two trains collided in Adamuz, in the province of Córdoba, on January 18, an event that caused 46 fatalities. In fact, the Spanish police are now practically only investigating one of the hypotheses: a track breakage would have caused a derailment of an Iryo train traveling towards Madrid, which collided with an Alvia train that was moving in the opposite direction at that time.

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.