Another chaotic week in Rodalies: this is the current state of the network

BarcelonaOver the last ten days, the Catalan railway network has relived the nightmare of January. A new storm tested the infrastructure and forced the suspension of all train services on Saturday evening. Since then, incidents and a new strike by train drivers have meant that the recovery of service has been gradual and uneven. Nevertheless, the Minister of Territory, Sílvia Paneque, stated this Friday that the network had responded "reasonably well" this time, and linked it, in part, to the 140 million invested after the January crisis to repair the infrastructure. This is the current state of the network, line by line:

After the storm, half of the line was affected. On Tuesday, trains only ran between L'Hospitalet de Llobregat and Arenys de Mar, and the route to Maçanet-Massanes was covered by buses. On Wednesday, circulation was recovered on the entire line, although at half capacity, which forced the maintenance of a complementary road service between Mataró and Sils. On Thursday, the service was restored.

Torrential rains caused serious problems in Granollers, as well as on the railway network. On Monday, circulation was interrupted between Granollers and Montmeló, and the section of the R2 Nord line between Granollers Centre and Sant Celoni was covered by road transport. On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, trains were partially recovered, but buses were maintained between Granollers Centre and Sant Celoni. By Thursday evening, Rodalies announced that train service had been restored along the entire route.

The R2 Sud line was affected, on Tuesday night, by an accident in Vilanova. A tree and an embankment fell onto a train, without causing injuries, and this forced the temporary closure of the line. On Wednesday it was recovered, although with many problems (also derived from the train drivers' strike), and normality in the service was not achieved until Thursday.

The R7 and R8 lines were unable to run trains until Wednesday, when service was also affected by the train drivers' strike, a fact that forced the maintenance of the alternative bus service. The usual rhythm of frequencies on these two lines was progressively recovered starting from Thursday.

Beyond the weekend rains, on Tuesday night, the train accident in Vilanova i la Geltrú forced a temporary suspension of rail traffic between Vilanova and Sant Vicenç de Calders. The entire Camp de Tarragona area and the south were affected by the combination of the accident, the storm, and the train drivers' strike. The recovery of these lines followed different schedules depending on the geographical area: the southern lines returned to normal much faster than those in Camp de Tarragona. In this case, the R17 and the R2 took a little longer due to the damage caused on the Tarragona-Salou-Port Aventura section. Buses were required until Wednesday at noon because normality did not return until the train drivers validated the safety reports.

On the R3 it rained on wet ground, because the line already had alternative plans in place due to the dualling works. After the impacts of the storm, on Tuesday trains were running between la Garriga and Ripoll and buses in other sections. On Wednesday the rail service was extended to Puigcerdà and la Tor de Querol. On Thursday the line was reopened, but with a complementary road service between Ripoll and Puigcerdà and an alternative service linked to the track dualling works.

On the R4, the section between Terrassa and Manresa had to be covered by road on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Rodalies announced the progressive recovery although buses were maintained in different sections. On Thursday the service was restored along the entire route. On the RL4, between Lleida and Manresa, the section between Manresa and Terrassa had to be covered by road, due to the effect of the rains until Thursday, when the service was restored.

After five days of interruptions and road alternatives, the R11 trains between Portbou and Barcelona regained momentum on Thursday afternoon and resumed service this Friday. Early in the morning, however, some trains were still accumulating delays of up to half an hour, and buses were maintained to cover cancelled services or potential incidents.

In the same area, the RG1 required bus service between Portbou, Figueres, and Sils, and a direct service between Girona and Sant Andreu until Thursday. The trains resumed service starting Wednesday, but intermittently, until Thursday night when it was decided to withdraw all alternative plans and the line began to operate fully with trains.

This week, lines R13 and R14 have maintained trains between Lleida-Pirineus and Les Borges Blanques, and between La Plana de Picamoixons and Barcelona –passing through Reus in the case of the R14–, while the section between Lleida and La Plana has been covered by buses. On Friday morning, this situation remained the same. In contrast, the RL3 has maintained rail service along the entire route throughout the week, according to Rodalies statements.