Renfe says commuter rail will operate tomorrow after two days of chaos

BarcelonaAfter two days of suspension, the commuter rail service will resume this Friday "with as much normality as possible," according to the company's spokesperson in Catalonia, Antonio Carmona. He explained that two trains will run on the R2 Nord line between El Prat Airport and Granollers tonight. Company staff will work throughout the night to gradually restore service, and Carmona is confident that the majority of trains on the Catalan rail network will be running by morning. The announcement came after Renfe, Adif, representatives of the train drivers, and the government reached an agreement during the afternoon to restore the commuter rail service, which had been paralyzed for the past 48 hours. After staging a sit-in on Thursday, the train drivers achieved one of their main demands: that a "thorough inspection" of the 13 commuter rail routes (or lines) be carried out before the normal operation of the rail network resumes to guarantee their safety. It wasn't until this inspection was completed that service began to be restored line by line.

Despite the fact that the Generalitat had stated on Wednesday night that train service would resume gradually on Thursday after a day's stoppage due to thetrain accident in GelidaUltimately, this has not been the case: trains have remained stopped due to the drivers' refusal to board the trains because of "lack of safety"; a situation the drivers' union had already warned was possible and which Renfe acknowledged and shared in a statement. Of the 140 drivers on staff, only six showed up for work, making it impossible to resume normal service. In response to this walkout, the Catalan Ministry of Territory has opened an investigation into Renfe, as the Catalan government had announced it would. "Safety is non-negotiable, but we also can't play with citizens' mobility in this way," said Pere Macias, the commissioner for the transfer of commuter rail services. Furthermore, the Catalan government has called an emergency meeting at Sants station with representatives from Renfe, Adif (the Spanish rail infrastructure manager), and the unions to try to resolve the situation.

The meeting dragged on well into the afternoon, with more than six hours of negotiations, as the train drivers insisted that, although Adif had certified the service's operability, "the agreed-upon safety guarantees for starting service were not being met." In fact, the spokesperson for the largest train drivers' union, Semaf, Diego Martín, told RAC1 that "a procedure was established to be able to open safely, checking the state of the infrastructure beforehand and with a report on the condition of each line, and this procedure has not been followed." Although only six workers reported for duty, the regional minister did not comment on whether the drivers' walkout was a disguised strike or not.

However, Tuesday's accident between Gelida and Sant Sadurní de Anoia, which left one dead—a young trainee train driver—and 37 injured, and the coincidence that two days earlier a train collision had occurred in Córdoba where 45 people died, was the final straw. The train drivers have said enough is enough and have demanded "quality guarantees" to resume service. Therefore, the thorough review of the thirteen routes has been a key element in resolving this situation. Also crucial is the commitment to implement an action plan to improve those points on the network where aspects or elements are detected that could endanger the safety of workers and passengers.

Fallen logs next to the tracks

It's important to note that the thirteen commuter rail routes represent over a thousand kilometers of track. As Paneque explained, there are two types of inspections: those carried out every night to ensure the resumption of service the following day, and those carried out when there is a major network disruption, such as the one after the Gelida accident. Once completed, Adif certified that service could resume normally. However, the train drivers considered this inspection insufficient and requested a more thorough review of the routes. To address the workers' concerns, thirteen teams (one for each commuter rail route), made up of train drivers, union representatives, and Renfe representatives, have been deployed to inspect the lines for any such elements and remove them. Once the review is complete, and provided there are no elements that compromise safety, service will gradually resume. Furthermore, the different parties also agreed to promote a medium- and long-term service improvement plan, with meetings every two months to ensure compliance. In line with the workers' concerns, service users have publicly reported that on Thursday afternoon, after the first inspections carried out by Adif (the Spanish rail infrastructure manager), there were still fallen trees very close to the tracks. Users of the R3 line, where the fallen trunks are located, told ARA (the local news agency) that these trees have been there for weeks and remain in the same place even after the inspections. According to the La Garriga Town Hall, as reported on its X profile, Adif informed them that the trees would be removed today. A local resident and commuter rail user recalls that a few years ago, specifically in 2014, a driver lost a leg after crashing into a tree on that same line, near Figaró.

"They demand things that can't be achieved in an hour."

Transport Minister Óscar Puente stated this morning in an interview on Catalunya Ràdio that the train drivers' demands are long-term. "They are demanding things that cannot be achieved in an hour," said the minister, who also denied that Wednesday's service was suspended due to a lack of drivers. "[Wednesday] We did what they asked, yes, and also what seemed sensible to us after a storm and the two accidents we've experienced: that is, to inspect all the tracks before starting service," Puente admitted. The minister asserted that doing so was a good decision because another retaining wall collapsed in Pineda while the service was suspended. Puente also stated that he does not have "sufficiently solid" information to say whether there is a covert strike, although he clarified that if there is no service this Thursday, it is not for safety reasons, as the train drivers' group claims. The minister waited for the emotional outcry to subside, acknowledging their understandable distress over the recent accidents in which two colleagues lost their lives. He also asked the train drivers not to damage the railway system, which he asserted they love dearly, and told them they were aware of the various initiatives underway to improve the network.