The map of the 30 incidents that Cercanías must resolve urgently
Adif has around fifty teams and 150 technicians inspecting the train network to restore all lines
BarcelonaFollowing the worst rail crisis in recent years in Catalonia, the commuter rail service resumed on Tuesday. Service restarted, but with numerous line and section closures and up to ten alternative bus services while safety inspections continue across the network following the fatal accident in Gelida a week ago. Adif expects to complete all inspections "this week" to restore service and announced on Tuesday that it is carrying out up to 30 emergency repairs across the network with some 50 teams and 150 technicians.
"The inspections are going very well, they're very advanced, and we believe that, throughout this week, all the lines could be practically unblocked," explained Ángel Contreras, director of construction works at Adif, who did not specify which lines would return to 100% operation first. Contreras also stated that the inspection plan agreed upon with the train drivers includes up to seventy inspections, of which these thirty are urgent. He also emphasized that it is an open plan and that more inspections can be added. Some of these urgent inspections will be carried out on the routes between La Garriga and Vic; Cerdanyola del Vallès and Montcada-Bifurcació; Mora la Nova and Reus; Figueres and Portbou; Ripoll and Ribes de Freser; Cervera and Sant Guim de Freixenet; and Arenys and Canet, among others.
More than 100 inspections
In the last week, Adif has carried out 116 inspections on the Catalan rail network. Its president, Luis Pedro Marco de la Peña, explained that when a warning exceeding the minimum alarm level is detected, a team is dispatched to urgently correct the situation. "We want to regain the trust of the public and the train drivers," he asserted. Regarding the outage of the Commuter Rail Centralized Traffic Center (CTC) on Monday, he attributed it to a software supplier failure. Specifically, it is software that was installed three months ago and is used at night to implement a new signaling system on the R1 line, where the new trains will run. "In conclusion, there was no sabotage, no cyberattack. It was a software error, a software error caused by the technology company that was developing and implementing the new rail management system," he said. When asked if they would hold Siemens, the technology company responsible for the software, accountable, he explained that he had already "instructed Adif's legal department to gather the complete file and apply the relevant regulations."