Chaos in commuter trains: 42 trains cancelled and no reinforcements due to the Sitges Carnival

BarcelonaCarnival weekend is very complicated for those who want to travel by train and, above all, for those who want to celebrate tonight's party in the south of Catalonia. After announcing that this weekend There would be no trains arriving at Sant Vicenç de Calders station Due to renovation works in the area, this morning Cercanías reported that, from early in the morning, the R2 Sur and R4 lines are experiencing widespread delays and altered frequencies due to a situation of "labor conflict" with the drivers' union.

Danger of crowds

For all these reasons, by 12:45 on Saturday, 42 trains had already had to be cancelled on the railway network and there are widespread delays of around 30 minutes on the R2 South and R4 lines. In addition, Cercanías has announced that due to this conflict, the reinforcement that had been scheduled between Sitges and Barcelona for this Carnival night will be suspended.

The suspension of the reinforcement does not imply that there will be no trains between the Catalan capital and Sitges, but that the 50,000 extra train seats that Cercanías had planned for the busiest times on the R2 South line, which links Barcelona with Sitges, will not be available.

In a tweet to X, the Secretary of Mobility and Infrastructure, Manel Nadal, admitted that the reinforcements on the R2 south for Carnival "will hardly be possible, for work reasons." He also warned that "crowds will surely occur."

In a statement, Renfe assures that it "regrets that a conflict with the drivers' union is affecting users just when an Action Plan is underway to improve the service" and warns that the situation experienced this Saturday "also affects the provision of trains in workshops and will have repercussions on the programming." From Cercanías they assure that they will give more details about these effects in the next few hours.

Two weeks ago, the general works councils of Renfe and Adif opened their doors to new protests over the transfer of Cercanías, alleging that the agreements that allowed the strike to be called off in 2023 had been breached. In a joint statement, they warned that the transfer of a section of the R1, regarding the future of the operator's workforce, contravened the integrity guarantee of the Adif and Renfe groups.