Engineer Luis Ubalde will lead the new technical office that will coordinate all suburban rail works.

BarcelonaThe new technical office that will coordinate all ongoing works under the Rodalies Plan now has a director. The person in charge of coordinating all network activities will be engineer Luis Ubalde, who until now was the technical manager of the public engineering firm Ineco and responsible for the works on the new La Sagrera station. He and nine other people, who will complete the team, will be responsible for leading this newly created office, which aims to improve coordination between the Government and the infrastructure manager, Adif, putting users at the center, and reducing the inconvenience caused by the works.

This was announced this Thursday morning by the Regional Minister for Territory, Sílvia Paneque, at the official presentation of the new body. The salaries of the nine employees and the director will be covered by Adif, to whom it will report organically, and the headquarters will be located at La Sagrera station. Paneque emphasized his confidence in the project, which, he said, "symbolizes working in a more organized, collaborative manner, with greater transparency and rigor" to contribute knowledge and transform the commuter rail network with the minimum possible impact on passengers.

The new technical office will also be responsible for directing projects that are not unique or maintenance work, will support the preparation of files and tenders, and will identify new needs complementary to ongoing projects. It will also collaborate in the communication of the projects and advise on the design of construction phases that impact the service.

An office without Renfe

Thus, the organization will be headed by the Adif-Generalitat partnership, but Renfe—which is the operator that actually transports passengers and has a direct relationship, for example, rescheduling services during roadworks—has been left more on the sidelines. Adif and the Government justify this decision by arguing that the two people most responsible for the works (Adif) and the service (the Generalitat is the owner) will be in charge of the office. They assured that with Renfe "there is daily contact" and "coordination is guaranteed."

"We don't have everything figured out," responded the spokesperson for Dignity on the Tracks. The platform expressed distrust with the launch of the office and questioned the supposedly good communication between Renfe and Adif. The deputy director of construction for lines in operation in the eastern zone of Adif, Ángel Contreras, assured that the office "was created with the aim of improving and coordinating." "We are all coordinating every week, on many different issues, and now we will be coordinating on this one as well," he concluded. For his part, the Commissioner for the Comprehensive Transfer of Cercanías of the Generalitat, Pere Macias, agreed that "the Generalitat already speaks with the operator every day" and therefore, he explained, they will forward whatever is necessary to Renfe.

Contreras and Macias made this assessment at a conference organized by the Workers' Commissions (Comisiones Obreras). Present and future of public rail transport mobility in Catalonia,coinciding with Mobility Week. Both industry representatives participated in a roundtable discussion where they had to respond to requests from users and platforms who were also invited to the event.

The petition: a "railway police"

Both unions and users—represented by the Public Transport Promotion Association (PTP), Dignity on the Tracks, the Iberian Alliance for Railways, and the Avant and Baix Llobregat user platforms—have openly expressed their discontent and harshly criticized both Adif and Renfe for their organization. "Of course we want investment, and works, and improvements, but they're taking us to an unbearable limit," said Anna Gómez, spokesperson for Dignity on the Tracks. "We're in a terrible mess; we've had many years of disinvestment, with money only allocated to high-speed rail, and yet 95% of users travel on conventional trains, which haven't had any investment in 15 years," recalled PTP vice president Carles García. "We're doing work in every room of the house, and we're still living here; it's a problem," he noted.

All the platforms also agreed in highlighting the problem of vandalism as another factor disrupting the service. "We have a very extensive network and Renfe is tired of cleaning up graffiti, stone-throwing trains... We are calling for a railway police force that takes a firm hand," said García, a statement applauded by the other platforms.

Renfe explained that it is up to the Department of the Interior to provide these personnel or not, and the Commissioner for Transfer, Pere Macias, responded that among the strategic lines foreseen in the railway roadmap is the fact that railway agents (workers, drivers, inspectors) are catas. "We want assaulting one of these workers to be the same as assaulting a police officer, but for that to happen, a change to Spanish laws is necessary, as is already planned, so that railway officers are considered agents of authority," Macias concluded.

Among the criticisms that those responsible for the railway service in Catalonia have had to hear the most have also been complaints about the poor functioning of elevators and escalators and the lack of platforms and trains adapted for people with reduced mobility.