Last week they assured everyone it wouldn't happen again, but it has. Adif's Centralized Traffic Center, the computer system that manages the movement of all commuter trains in Catalonia—located at França station—failed again this Tuesday morning, twice in quick succession, at 7:00 and 8:00 a.m., right in the middle of rush hour. They were two brief outages, about five minutes each, but enough to bring confusion and chaos back to the platforms and inside the trains.

A second consecutive day of problems on the R3 commuter rail line. A second incident affected service on this line, which crosses Central Catalonia, during the early morning hours. Passengers attempting to travel on this Renfe line this morning found it closed from La Garriga to Puigcerdà due to a problem with the infrastructure managed by Adif. The company explained that the cause of the outage was the theft of a cable from the communications system. Workers were able to replace the equipment and resume service at 7:46 a.m. However, Renfe has already implemented an alternative transportation system using buses to ensure passengers can travel. In fact, even though the line has been repaired, there may be changes to schedules and frequencies, which will be gradually restored as service resumes. The R3 line runs vertically across the region, from Tor de Querol and Puigcerdà to L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, passing through Vic and Barcelona. This line has also been undergoing a major track-doubling project for months, with partial closures lasting months or even years, to add more tracks to the route, as it is the last single-track line in Catalonia. This means that when there is a breakdown anywhere along the route, trains cannot overtake, affecting the entire service.

The heat of recent weeks is wreaking havoc on Renfe's train fleet operating in Catalonia. For example, at least 16 trains were out of service last week due to various air conditioning problems and breakdowns, according to the train drivers' union, Semaf, which states that this is a "very high" figure. But these are not the only damaged trains: union sources tell ARA that, in total, during the months of June and July, the number of immobilized trains has reached around 30%, well above the usual 15%.

Arc de Triomf, Catalunya, Clot, Premià, Prat, Granollers, Sabadell, Hospitalet... users of all these stations (and many others) have been publicly denouncing on social media for months that numerous elements of the facilities at their stops are out of order. Already in early February, The Vanguard He reported that at least seventy escalators and elevators in commuter rail stations across Catalonia are out of service, with no one apparently doing anything to remedy the situation. Until February, the company awarded the contract for this maintenance was Schindler.

Three hours of meeting and ten agreements on the table. The Generalitat, the Spanish government and the presidents of Adif and Renfe have left the emergency meeting this Sunday - convened yesterday by the Department of Territory - with a list of measures that should help improve the train service in Catalonia or, at least, avoid The chaos in railway mobility experienced in the last seven days.

It was supposed to be a positive week for Cercanías, but it ended up being HorribilisThe sight on Friday of hundreds of passengers having to complete their journey on foot along the track escorted by the Mossos and the Firefighters was the disastrous culmination of a week that had begun with the reopening of the Berà tunnel on Monday and the resumption of service between Tarragona and Barcelona after five months of works.