The Secretary of Mobility and Infrastructures of the Generalitat, Manel Nadal, admitted today that Barcelona needs "at least five or six bus stations and interchanges" to cope with the strong demand the sector has experienced in recent years, and more especially since January, when the Rodalies crisis broke out. He said this at an event organized by the sector's employers' association, Fecav, which this Tuesday presented – together with the Terminus Transport Studies Centre – the book L'autobús i l'autocar a Catalunya, the first publication to cover the entire history of the sector, written by expert Joan Carles Salmerón. At the event, the Secretary of Mobility addressed the assembled entrepreneurs, to whom he also set homework.

It's a few minutes past 8 a.m. and the Fabra i Puig metro station on Line 1 is overflowing. The train arrives—already quite full—and barely manages to absorb all the passengers on the platform, which is now clear. But the scene is short-lived. Seconds later, a new wave of people, practically a hundred, passes through the access gates and gets off onto the platform. A little while later, another group joins them. In a matter of minutes, the platform is packed again until another train arrives. The scene is reminiscent of the rhythm of queues at an amusement park or the impossible intersections of Tokyo, and it repeats itself tirelessly every 3 minutes. That is, the time it takes for the train to arrive during rush hour.