The FGC train that will connect the two El Prat terminals will arrive at the end of 2026.

BarcelonaAmong the many outstanding issues in Catalan infrastructure is the need to reach the airport more quickly and comfortably by public transport. Specifically, with a shuttle train connecting Barcelona and the two terminals at El Prat Airport. This Friday, the President of the Generalitat (Catalan government), Salvador Illa, led the presentation of the first of ten electric trains—which are brand new—ordered by Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat (FGC) and the company Alstom. The green and white trains will be part of the future R-Airport (RA), which is expected to enter operation in 2026 (early 2027 at the latest), and must resolve this problem.

The trains have connected screens with flight information, space for luggage and bicycles, and are accessible for people with reduced mobility and hearing impairments. The trains have 202 seats and a total capacity of 656 passengers. The service will run every 15 minutes and last approximately 20 minutes. This train will connect seven stations—Sant Andreu, La Sagrera, Clot, Paseo de Gracia, Sants, Bellvitge, and El Prat—with the two airport terminals. Currently, Renfe trains serve Terminal 2, and metro line 9 serves Terminals 1 and 2.

"We need a Catalonia that is more connected internally and with the rest of the world. A more efficient airport must be well connected to the country's public transport network: with commuter trains, the metro, buses, and soon, by the end of 2026, with FGC," said Illa from the Alstom factory in Occidental (Santa Perpètua).

In this sense, the president emphasized that this new service will guarantee "easier, faster, and more reliable" access to the airport. FGC has invested a total of 177 million euros in this project, of which 107 million will be spent on the design, manufacture, and commissioning of the new vehicles and 70 million on maintenance work for 15 years.

The company Alstom has already presented the train model Just a year ago, at the Tomorrow Mobility trade fair, Alstom Spain and Portugal's president, Leopoldo Maestu, compared the arrival of this service to Barcelona with those already operating in major European cities, such as the Leonardo Express in Rome or the Sprinter in Amsterdam; both well-established services with an average journey time between the city center and the airport of just 30 minutes.

In April, work began on the workshop where Alstom will maintain the trains for the next 15 years, and this Friday, validation tests began on this first train at the Santa Perpètua de Mogoda facilities. This is the final phase of the tests being carried out at the factory before beginning them on the Adif infrastructure. President Illa also specified that FGC will hire 70 new drivers to operate the service. The event was also attended by the mayor of the municipality, Isabel García; the regional minister for Territory, Housing, and Energy Transition, Silvia Paneque; and the president of FGC, Carles Ruiz.

One delay after another

The history of this service dates back to 2017, when Josep Rull, then Minister of Territory and Sustainability, informed the Ministry of Public Works—controlled by Mariano Rajoy's PP government—that it would be FGC that would operate the new train line between Barcelona and the airport, and not Renfe. He did so in response to the continuous delays in the works and citing the Catalan government's authority to choose the best operator. However, a year later, once the Adif tunnel boring machine had finished making the hole connecting the Catalan capital with the T1 station, a conflict erupted between the two operators over the management of the infrastructure.

While the Catalan government kept the promise Rull had made a year earlier, Madrid claimed that the final decision in favor of Renfe had not yet been made, and the standoff between the two companies affected the schedule and decision-making. Despite the back-and-forth, the Spanish government gave the green light in 2020 to the tender for the branch line link between the Barcelona-Tarragona line to terminals T2 and T1, and FGC began the process of putting out to tender the new R-Airport trains. However, Renfe insisted that it was unclear who would manage the service and maintained that the best option was for the Spanish operator to do so, since the train will run on one of its commuter lines.

Aside from the standoff between FGC and Renfe, the infrastructure works being managed by Adif were progressing more slowly than expected; another thorn in the side of the schedule that marked the start of service in 2024. Despite the multiple delays and the bidding war between companies, the Government and FGC continued working to get the line up and running, and with this Friday's announcement, it seems that the final stretch is finally in sight.