The Rodalies rail service has three fundamental components. The infrastructure (tracks, electrification, signalling, stations) is the responsibility of Adif, and there is no forecast that this may cease to be the case, since these lines are interoperable with the rest of the Spanish Iberian network and in some there are other types of trains run, such as goods on the Mediterranean Corridor (for R2, R4 and R8). The investment deficit in this component is obvious, and remedying it is the objective of the Neighborhood Plan 2020-2030, which, more than a plan, is an investment program of around €6,200 M (of which a part is necessary urban rail integrations rather than rail infrastructure improvements). It will be necessary to continue with a 2030-2040 investment program for a similar amount. Twenty years of non-investment can only be recovered with twenty years of investment, simply to put the Rodalies network at a level comparable to the current level of the other networks. And that includes virtually no network extensions! The trains of the Rodalies de Catalunya (suburban and regional) are about 250 units, which, lined up, would occupy almost 25 km, with their workshops and garages, and they all belong to Renfe, which has already launched an ambitious replacement and extension plan of his fleet. Adif and Renfe belong to the State and emerged from the division of Renfe in 2004, following the directives of the European Union that require the separation of infrastructure and services to encourage the entry of private companies and competition in the freight and long-haul services. These are highly centralized companies with coordination problems, as evidenced by the recent termination of their top managers, apparently due to a purely technical problem such as the gauge of some tunnels and some trains. The service (timetables, rates, subsidies) has been the “competence†of the Generalitat since 2010. But the capacity of the Generalitat to decide on the service is very small: it has no ability to influence the infrastructure, very little on the trains and the transfer of funds for the subsidy required to maintain the service has not yet taken place (it is still the State that pays Renfe).
With this scenario, it is difficult that the important investments that are already arriving, and that it is anticipated and desired that they will continue to arrive, alone will be sufficient for the Rodalies to reach the level of quality to which the other three railway operators (FGC , Metro and Tram) are used to us. And I’m also afraid that with this scheme of (non)governance, facing the complex works planned for the coming years (Hospitalet, Montcada, R3 duplication…) will mean a rollercoaster of crises and reproaches between institutions Therefore, I think the time has come for the State and the Generalitat to agree on a governance scheme that assumes that Rodalies is necessarily a shared competence (as for example is the Barcelona Metro, where the Generalitat does the works, TMB the operation and Generalitat and councils are coordinated through the ATM). Establishing the new governance will be a fundamentally political act, but I dare to introduce some ideas.
The Generalitat has several ways to take on more responsibility in the operation. The simplest and slowest is to create new commuter services, with new trains and new operators (with FGC or with other public or private companies, in accordance with European regulations). This is already being done for future services at the Airport and on the Manresa – Lleida line, which will be operated by FGC, and it is what the states and regions are doing in Germany and France. Another possibility is for Renfe to create a “Rodalies de Catalunya” subsidiary with the current assets destined for Catalonia (trains, drivers…) in which the Generalitat will be given a significant role. One such model is that of the ports of Barcelona and Tarragona, which have a president proposed by the Generalitat and a board of directors with representatives of the territory, but in fact belong to the state body “Puertos del Estado”, which has its own president and board of directors. This company could even be transferred to the Generalitat (as in the 80s the companies of the public Feve that gave rise to FGC were transferred to the Generalitat).
As far as the Ministry is concerned, it is surprising that there has always been a Demarcation of State Roads in Catalonia and there has never been the equivalent for railways. As far as Adif is concerned, it could create a more powerful structure in Catalonia dedicated to the Suburbs, with a higher level of command within the company’s organizational chart. The Generalitat must also strengthen its technical structure to take on the challenge of exercising its competence in the organization of services with greater force.
And these three legs, that is to say, this necessarily shared competence, require a higher level of coordination, the core of which could be the current office of the Neighborhood Plan but with the incorporation of the Generalitat and a reinforcement of its capacity to ‘involvement and/or command in the three key aspects: infrastructure, trains and operation.
