The surge in investments, construction projects, and also disruptions to railway infrastructure and service interruptions across the country has dramatically increased the number of alternative road transport plans that Renfe has in place. Finding available buses at a reasonable price is no easy task when multiple problems coincide, and this has led the Spanish train operator to embark on a new project: Renfe now wants to create its own bus company to avoid relying on private providers. This was explained by spokespeople for the operator on Tuesday in a statement detailing that the tender for the new subsidiary has already been approved. Its objective is to handle all alternative road transport plans (known as PATs in railway jargon) designed for each train. In this way, Renfe will no longer have to depend on the availability of external companies and assures that it will be able to provide a "more agile" response to passengers, "with more personalized attention and a better integrated service."

The Catalan government is raising its voice. The Minister of Territory, Silvia Paneque, explained that "for the first time" the entire commuter rail network is undergoing a comprehensive review and declared that the state of the infrastructure they found is "fragile" and "utterly deplorable." She made these remarks during an appearance before the Catalan Parliament on Thursday. Paneque also took the opportunity to boast about her handling of the rail crisis in Catalonia, triggered by the Gelida accident, where a young trainee train driver lost his life after a retaining wall collapsed under the R4 train he was traveling on, on January 20th. The Minister asserted that the Catalan government "has prioritized safety at all times," and also reiterated its demands for dismissals at both Renfe and Adif, as well as its pressure on the Ministry to accelerate investment.

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.

Renfe and the government have again flatly rejected the third alternative plan put forward today by train user platforms to make up for the lack of trains on the R3 line during the upcoming expansion works, which will last sixteen months. This Wednesday, to guarantee road mobility while the track work continues, the government and the operator agreed on a new bus offer, this time halfway between the one they announced with great fanfare at the beginning of June and the halved version that Renfe unilaterally decided to bid for at the end of June.

The afternoon of downpours closed yesterday with two people missing—who could be a woman and a child—dozens of flooded streets, inundated lowlands, overflowing rivers, and train service halted for more than three hours throughout Catalonia, forcing some 150 commuters to spend the night at Sants station. These are the direct consequences of the storms that swept across Catalonia this Saturday afternoon from the south and northeast. Up to 18 firefighters on land, as well as underwater, worked throughout Saturday to locate two people in Cubelles. The work stopped well into the night and resumed early Sunday morning.

Of a great work, that of Wheel of Berà, to another: the R3 commuter line. The Catalan rail network remains immersed in its own whirlwind of improvement works, and after many delays, it's now the turn of the R3, one of the most battered lines (from Hospitalet to Puigcerdà) in Catalonia. A date has been set: the doubling works will resume on September 27 and will last 16 months. During this time, train traffic will be completely cut off between Montcada Bifurcació and La Garriga, and it will become the largest rail traffic disruption ever in the country.