The week begins under the shadow of two pieces of news, one good and one bad. The bad one? Train drivers' strikeThe good news? The AP-7 motorway reopened this morning after being closed for three weeks. All three lanes between Martorell and Gelida are now open in the direction of Tarragona.

As expected, Monday has arrived and today's train lottery has brought no luck. Renfe has ended up offering road service where it cannot yet provide rail service.

The director of the Catalan Traffic Service, Ramon Lamiel, has reiterated that the 10-kilometer section of the AP-7 closed Due to the instability of the terrain at the site of the train accident in Gelida—in which a trainee driver died when a retaining wall on the highway collapsed—the road will remain closed "for days." In fact, this Saturday, the head of Traffic will accompany personnel from the Ministry of Transport, which owns the highway, on a site visit to analyze the condition of the lanes. Once further details of the road surface inspection are available, other solutions could be found to alleviate the traffic restrictions.

Sources directly involved in the negotiations between Esquerra Republicana, the Catalan government, and the Spanish government regarding the funding system assured us this morning that "we will get out of this situation and secure funding, but everything takes time." The million-dollar question (and the pun is intended) is the extent of the improvement.

Early this morning, another accident occurred on the AP-7 motorway near L'Aldea (Baix Ebre), involving three trucks. One driver was killed, and another was seriously injured. As a result of the accident, the motorway, which runs from south to north across the country, was closed for hours, leaving thousands of drivers stranded. A similar incident occurred last weekend. A truck accident on Saturday afternoon caused a fuel spill, forcing traffic to be diverted onto the N-340 between L'Ampolla and L'Ametlla. Consequently, on Sunday afternoon, the AP-7 became a death trap for vehicles returning to Barcelona from the Valencian Community, turning a journey that should have taken two hours into a six-hour ordeal. The truth is, the AP-7 has recently become a nightmare for drivers, both northbound and southbound, where it's impossible to predict what might happen. This is to say nothing of the danger of driving on a supposedly fast road congested with trucks that, moreover, overtake each other, causing long queues and, occasionally, accidents like the one early this morning.

Whether you're on a weekend or a weekday, early in the morning or at lunchtime, summer or winter, at some point you're bound to find yourself stuck on the AP-7. The volume of traffic that motorway drivers endure is overwhelming, even distressing.

The Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) have arrested a middle-aged man for opening fire from a car at a truck in Montblanc and then fleeing along the AP-7 motorway to Molins de Rei, when the police intercepted him, according to ARA. According to police sources, an off-duty Mossos d'Esquadra officer saw a car shooting at a truck at the exit of the Lille tunnel, on the A-27 motorway near Montblanc. The heavy vehicle had at least two bullet holes. The officer quickly alerted the authorities and gave a description of the car from which the shots had come, a Volkswagen Golf, and another vehicle that could be involved in the incident, an Audi Q5. The incident occurred at twenty minutes to two on Thursday afternoon.

1. The highway that crosses Catalonia, from Castellón to Perpignan, or from France to Spain, is a national issue that cannot be ignored. If it weren't for the chaos of the commuter trains and our rail connections, what's happening on the AP-7 would merit constant parliamentary debate. 30 minutes a week, and some resignation. Even if it was for dignity or professional shame. But in the country of "not a piece of paper on the floor," revolutions pass us by because protesting seems to make us lazy. And who spends a day, a caravan takes. This Easter Monday, the day of Operation Return, it's a given that the lines will be miles long. Between Sils and Cardedeu, patience and radio. Between Altafulla and Gelida, start and stop, and that'll be enough if you can get into third gear at some point. And it's even better that, today, trucks, trailers, and other fat beasts will be prohibited from driving. It's logical that if 600,000 cars want to return to the same city in a single day, traffic jams are inevitable. There aren't enough lanes to accommodate everyone. But this column isn't about exceptional situations on Easter Sunday, but about everyday life.

One person died and seven others were injured—two seriously—when a reckless driver collided with six vehicles that were stopped in a traffic jam on the AP-7 near Vilablareix, in the Gironès region. This is the first fatal accident this Easter in Catalonia, given that the return operation begins at 12 noon this Sunday, during which approximately 580,000 vehicles are expected to be returned to the Barcelona area by midnight tomorrow, Easter Monday.