The Government is already processing the transfer of the R2 Sur and R3 commuter train lines.

BarcelonaThe process for the transfer of commuter rail continues to move forward, now with an eye on lines R2 Sur and R3. Two and a half months after the government announced that it had formally requested the state to the declassification of R1 —that is, the separation of this line from the national railway network— the Generalitat has now commissioned the Catalan infrastructure manager, the Catalan Railway Infrastructures Authority (Ifercat), to begin conducting an inventory of these other two lines. According to ARA, the government of Salvador Illa plans to finalize this decision during the executive council meeting this coming Tuesday.

This is, therefore, the first necessary step prior to asking Madrid to also separate the tracks and stations through which the R2 Sur and R3 lines pass, a formal request that is expected to arrive before the end of the year, as the Regional Minister for Territory, Silvia Paneque, explained in January. The objective, therefore, is for Ifercat staff to begin putting in writing everything that should be transferred to the Generalitat in the case of these two lines, just as they did previously with the R1.

Last summer, the Catalan government made it clear that the Maresme line would be the first to be split from the national network because it meets a key requirement: it runs entirely through Catalonia (from Molins de Rei to Maçanet-Massanes), which facilitates the procedures for its transfer.

In the case of the R2 Sur (from Sant Vicenç de Calders to Barcelona) and the R3 (El Papiol-L'Hospitalet-Vic-Puigcerdà), the contract with Ifercat specifically includes the drafting of studies and projects that will identify the elements to be transferred and the investments in the different routes. The agreement also entails the drafting and establishment of agreements and management contracts with third parties, such as Adif, to make the transfer effective, guaranteeing the continuity and safety of the service.

Politically, this step forward represents a further demonstration of Isla's government's willingness to comply with the agreements reached with ERC. In January, when the Socialists announced the implementation of the transfer with R1, the Republicans responded that "we had to go much further."