14 controllers and 1,200 trains: this is how the room that directs commuter rail traffic works
Adif studies placing sensors on Catalan tracks to detect landslides before the train reaches them
BarcelonaThere is silence and concentration. A screen of more than 10 meters, from one end of the room to the other, with the diagram of all the trains currently in circulation and 14 workstations. Each one is controlled by a supervisor, who monitors an area of the Catalan network. It is the already famous Barcelona Traffic Control Center (CRC), which depends on the infrastructure manager Adif and is located at the França station. Yesterday, its managers explained, from the inside, how all this machinery that directs the circulation of commuter trains and freight trains that pass through the conventional network works.
This same control center was widely questioned in February, in the midst of the railway crisis, when it suffered a double power outage (a few minutes apart) that left Catalonia without trains. Everything happened in here. At that moment, the systems that provide information to this nerve center – the so-called CTCs or centralized traffic control centers – failed, all at once, due to a "software error" and left the controllers blind and the trains stopped. The information was not reaching their screens. It happened just the day that normality was supposed to be restored to the network after the fatal accident in Gelida.
The technicians quickly activated the second system, the emergency one, explain Adif sources, but the software also failed on this second device: "What should never have happened, happened," admit the same sources. But it was not the first time: before, in September 2022, the control center also suffered a software problem that stopped Rodalies for hours and in 2015 a similar event also occurred. In all cases, the Government described the situation as inadmissible and demanded "guarantees" so that the problems "would not happen again".
Adif's control center, inside
What the system (still) cannot controlThe first centralized control was launched in 1990 and has not stopped updating since then, according to Adif sources. Today, new technologies allow CRC staff to execute planned transport plans, direct traffic in real-time from this single room, and intervene in incidents remotely, minimizing human error: they can activate or deactivate all elements of the track, signals, or switches.
However, the infrastructure manager explains that they still maintain operators in some stations: "We haven't yet found a better way to do it from these positions," they explain. From here, works, maintenance, and the capacity the network can have are also planned, designing graphics of where all and each of the trains that want to cross Catalonia will pass.
What the system (still) cannot control
Despite everything, the Harry storm, which hit Catalonia at the end of January, caught them by surprise. "It was an unprecedented situation, one that none of us who have been working here for decades have ever seen," admit internal sources from the CRC. "It put us on the ropes," they continue. The same sources argue that each incident – and there were more than a hundred during those weeks – represents an immense task of redoing all the graphics, with hundreds of trains. "It is a delicate, serious and rigorous process that must be handled well," they defend.
When an incident occurs, they explain, there is also no "improvisation": protocols stipulate which movement to make in the face of each possible eventuality. When there is a cable theft or lightning fries a substation, the system also detects it because it registers the voltage drop and alerts the controllers. But absolute control is impossible, and there are still elements that escape the records and cause trouble for the system and its operators. These are landslides, stones on the track, or trees falling on the rails. These are situations that, for now, do not appear automatically on the screens. "We find out when the first driver who arrives informs us or when security forces, such as the police or firefighters, do," they explain from Adif. For this reason, Adif assures that the Innovation and Development (I+D) department is already working on the possibility of including sensors on the conventional network tracks, as the high-speed ones already have. "We are trying to develop some kind of landslide detection system, for example," assure sources from the infrastructure manager. For falling trees, there is still no clear remedy, beyond preventive felling. For falling trees, there is still no clear remedy, beyond preventive felling.The other weak point continues to be the software. After the failures this winter, Adif assures that it has asked for explanations from the supplier, Siemens, and has already opened an investigation to audit whether to request any compensation. Despite this, they assure that the company has made all the necessary updates: "There is nothing that indicates to us that what happened in February could happen again, we trust it will not happen," point out sources from the CRC. Adif sources add that "there is no better technology on the market" and that "the system is updated day by day and week by week to include improvements". "We are doing everything possible to prevent it from happening again," they insist. If something were to happen again, the B plan remains the same as it was in February: activate the emergency control, located in Sants.