Adif blocks user website that published speed limits on the train network

BarcelonaAdif blocked the website of the user platform Dignity on the Tracks this Friday, where users could consult the temporary speed restrictions on the conventional rail network. According to sources within the company who spoke to ARA, its cybersecurity service requested the website operator to block access, citing "security" reasons because "sensitive information" was being published. The website in question is limitacions.vatard.cat, which the platform launched to provide users with up-to-date information. In a statement, Dignity on the Tracks denounced the blocking of its website and lamented that the Spanish government "seems to prefer opacity to public service." Regarding the argument that temporary speed restrictions are not public data, the platform pointed out that "transparency is not a threat, it is a democratic right." In the statement, the platform argues that other European Union countries have public portals with this data.

"Why is paternalism and secrecy chosen here instead of the transparency that Europe demands?" asks the platform, which accuses the ministry of "negligence" and maintains that the Spanish government itself should readily provide this information. "If the ministry doesn't do so, it's not because it can't, it's because it doesn't want us to have proof of the reasons for the chronic delays," argues the platform, which points out that the blocked website was created "in less than a working day."

Transparency

Furthermore, Dignity on the Tracks explains that in less than 24 hours since the website's launch, several workers submitted a dozen data contributions. "They also want the reality of the infrastructure they work on every day to be known," the group states. In statements to ARA, Dignity on the Tracks spokesperson Anna Gómez criticizes the closure of their website without explanation, and emphasizes that the sustainable mobility law establishes that managers must guarantee the availability of data on the infrastructure, which, she argues, should include temporary speed limits.