The works have arrived on the Vic line after decades of demands from the users and the local councils, who are burdened with the regret of having a single track that makes the schedules of the R3 go to waste for any incident. The work prior to the construction of the dual carriageway in the section between Parets del Vallès and la Garriga is already underway. In order for this to become a reality, the prior effects on travelers are unavoidable, as they will have to endure a few months of bus travel as a toll to have a better service from 2025.
The first cut will arrive on October 12 and will last until the second half of January, with the service interrupted at first from Mollet-Santa Rosa to Figaró. From November, the impact will be reduced and trains will reach Parets. It is estimated that there will be around 12,000 people affected every day, according to sources from the Ministry of Transport.
Between the stations without a train there will be an alternative service by road with some buses that will follow the same route as the railway and other direct ones to reduce the time lost on the road. In the morning you can take these direct complementary services that will leave from Centelles and la Garriga when the train arrives and will run non-stop to Barcelona’s Sagrera-Meridiana station. In the afternoon these direct buses will make the journey in the opposite direction. The association for the Promotion of Public Transport (PTP) and other entities in defense of the R3 regret the “centralist vision” of the alternative plan, which forgets the students and workers who travel from the Catalan capital to Vic or in the Vallès in the morning and return in the afternoon. For their part, the R3 trains between Parets and Hospitalet de Llobregat will maintain their usual timetables, just like from Figaró to Puigcerdà, with a frequency of approximately every half hour.
The biggest cut in the service will come in the summer of next year, when the tracks will be extended on the 18 kilometer stretch which will become double track and will have to go back to substitute buses for more than three months. For now, in this first phase, the tasks will focus on adapting the stations to the future scheme.
The total investment of the works is up to 155 million euros and includes the removal of the crossings in the Garriga and the construction of a new station in Parets del Vallès. This aspect is still in the awarding process and is expected to be a reality in 2026. For the future, there will still be the split to the north (from Figaró to Vic) and south (from Montcada to Parets) of the section currently under construction, and so the long-claimed improvement of the R3 line will be given true overall meaning.
