Rodalies returns to the political forefront. Not surprisingly, it may be one of the issues to be negotiated with a view to the investiture of the next president of the government. The failure of last Thursday in the signaling system of the tunnel in Plaza Catalunya, which interrupted the circulation of the trains of four lines for more than an hour, already motivated that same day that the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, demanded the transfer , and that the regional councilor for Territories, Ester Capella, demand explanations from the network administrator (Adif), the operator (Renfe) and the central executive, responsible for both public companies. The latter has demanded this Monday by letter to the Minister of Transport, Raquel Sánchez, the holding of an urgent meeting to address the aforementioned transfer that, in her opinion, must be “comprehensive”.
In the letter, Capella assures that the economic transfer “ran aground” because the central Administration stated that “the formalization of a contract with the current operator, Renfe, was an inexcusable requirement” and insists on claiming it “in all its variables”. This includes, it details, “infrastructure, rolling stock, human resources and investments to be made, as well as measures to deal with repeated service disruptions.”
“These two summer months we have practically had an incidence attributable to the infrastructure or to the material rolling every two days,” laments the minister. Specifically, in the last 60 days, 26 serious incidents related to the electricity supply, technical breakdowns of trains, derailments and failures in the signaling system have been reported”. Capella highlights the derailment of the talgo that took place in Sitges on August 15, which caused the delay of 562 trains and the suppression of 267 more, with accumulated delays of 8,079 minutes and harming some 65,000 people.
The answer given when there are alterations is also a reason for criticism by the Catalan person in charge of Territories. “The ministry has to guarantee sufficient resources – indicates Capella – so that Adif – when the origin of the affectation is in the infrastructure – or Renfe – in case of train failures – take charge of the cost of these alternative transport plans , and that ensure the maintenance of the public transport service with quality conditions equivalent to the unaltered service”.
