Rodalies returns to the political foreground. Not surprisingly, it may be one of the issues to be negotiated in the face of the investiture of the next president of the central government. The breakdown on Thursday of the signaling system of the Plaça Catalunya tunnel, which interrupted the circulation of trains on four lines for more than an hour, already motivated the same day that the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, demanded the transfer, and that the Minister of Territory, Ester Capella, demand explanations from the network administrator (Adif), the operator (Renfe) and the Spanish Executive, responsible for the two public companies. Yesterday, the latter demanded by letter to the Minister of Transport, Raquel Sánchez, the holding of an urgent meeting to address the aforementioned transfer, which, according to her opinion, must be “comprehensive”.
In the letter, Capella assures that the financial transfer “stuck” because the Central Administration proposed that “the formalization of a contract with the current operator, Renfe, was an inexcusable requirement”, and insists on claiming it ” in all variables”. This includes, he explains, “the infrastructure, mobile equipment, human resources and the investments that must be made, as well as the measures to deal with the repeated alterations to the service”.
“These two summer months we have practically had an incidence attributable to the infrastructure or the rolling stock every two days – laments the minister. Specifically, in the last 60 days, 26 serious incidents related to electricity supply, technical train breakdowns, derailments and errors in the signaling system have been reported. Capella highlights the derailment of the strike that took place in Sitges on August 15 and caused the delay of 562 trains and the cancellation of 267 more, with cumulative delays of 8,079 minutes, and harmed around 65,000 people.
The response given when there are alterations to Rodalies is also a reason for criticism by the Catalan head of Territory. “The Ministry must guarantee sufficient resources – indicates Capella – so that Adif – when the source of the damage is to the infrastructure – or Renfe – in the event of train breakdowns – take over the cost of alternative transport plans , and ensure the maintenance of the public transport service with quality conditions equivalent to the unchanged service”.
