The Catalan government expects to restore "normal" service on commuter trains starting Monday.

BarcelonaCommuter rail service resumes this Tuesday after seven days of unprecedented chaos that culminated on Monday with two dismissals at Renfe and Adif. However, it is operating at reduced capacity, with numerous line and section closures and up to ten alternative bus services. The situation will continue throughout the week while safety inspections of the network continue following the fatal accident in Gelida a week ago. The Minister of Territory and spokesperson for the Balearic Government, Sílvia Paneque, explained that the plan is to restore "normal" service next Monday, with no alternative services on the vast majority of lines. Service will gradually resume over the weekend on the sections under evaluation, and Adif is currently working at 29 locations where problems have been detected. Despite the restoration of service to "normal" on Monday, disruptions will continue on the R3 line, due to work carried out before the accident, and on the R4 line, following the collapse of the wall in Gelida. Furthermore, Renfe and Adif are still working to reopen the sections closed after Monday's double technical failure, which left all of Catalonia without trains twice during the morning rush hour. This failure, incidentally, was confirmed by the president of Adif, Luis Pedro Marco de la Peña, to be unrelated to any "sabotage or cyberattack," but rather to an error in new "state-of-the-art" software, which they confirmed with the supplier. He has guaranteed that the problem has already been resolved.

Monday's incident once again called into question the ability of Renfe, Adif, the Spanish government, and the Catalan government to guarantee commuter rail service. In this scenario, the Government is committed to working with all parties to accelerate the rollout of the emergency plan to improve information for users and to be on top of the Transport Ministry to ensure that the resources are used which she has promised to inject into the network—an additional investment of €1.7 billion has already been announced. At a press conference this Tuesday, Paneque declined to comment on the dismissals of the Cercanías (commuter rail) operations director, Josep Enric Garcia Alemany, and the Adif (Spain's railway infrastructure manager) operations director, Raúl Míguez Bailo, a decision she maintains was not agreed upon with the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente. "We have conveyed that everyone must assume their responsibility, in whatever way they deem appropriate," the regional minister stated. And among these solutions, she added, is not taking Renfe and Adif to court, as Junts (the ruling coalition) has requested. "It solves nothing," she asserted.

Despite calls for resignation from the opposition —also from the Minister of Territory herself—, the Catalan Government also rejects the idea that the mobility crisis in the country should translate into the assumption of responsibilities within the Generalitat (Catalan government). Paneque has closed ranks with her team, "absolutely" ruling out any resignations within the Ministry of Territory, starting with her own, although she admits there is room for "improvement" in some aspects, such as the information available. In any case, she insisted that the Generalitat is supporting and "monitoring" Renfe's work in this regard, but that responsibility in this area also lies with the operator.

Alternative service

This Tuesday, trains on the busiest lines combined rail service with sections operated solely by road, using a fleet of 146 buses. On the R1 line, for example, an alternative service was implemented between Arenys and Maçanet, while on the R4 line, the same occurred between Sant Sadurní d'Anoia and Martorell Central, and between Terrassa and Estació del Nord-Manresa. Trains, however, continued to operate along the entire R2 line, both north and south. Renfe spokesperson Antonio Carmona maintained that the current service is "sufficient to guarantee the mobility of people who want to use Cercanías (commuter rail)" and assured that the goal is to "restore passenger confidence" as soon as possible. A week later, the Catalan government (Generalitat) began to quantify the cost of the exceptional measures implemented to facilitate mobility during the country's mobility crisis. Specifically, the removal of the toll on the C-32 after the closure of the AP-7 has cost €600,000 per day. To that amount must be added the €1 million spent on the initial bus service to reinforce intercity routes, according to Paneque. The regional minister confirmed that, once the crisis is over, they will meet with the Ministry of Transport to discuss alternative transport plans. "There are issues that fall under the Ministry's responsibility; we will have to negotiate with them," she warned.

Free

Furthermore, for one month, to compensate for the inconvenience, commuter, regional, and medium-distance train passes are free. Free tickets can be obtained at ticket offices or self-service machines in stations, although on the ground—and despite the 700 information officers deployed for the resumption of service—not everyone seems to be aware of this, as ARA has observed. Those who opted for high-speed rail also didn't have a smooth morning, with trains accumulating delays of more than an hour. Renfe sources have admitted that the speed restrictions imposed by Adif—following the fatal accident in Adamuz—affect all operators and also impact driver schedules, causing delays due to train changes. All of this has contributed to the fact that a dozen train user groups, including the Association for the Promotion of Public Transport (PTP) and Dignity on the Tracks, They have called for a demonstration in Barcelona on February 7th.A march intended to denounce the "systematic disinvestment" in the railway network will proceed from França Station to Sant Jaume Square. The Catalan government maintains that it respects the march but has ruled out participating.