The Ministry of Transport believes that everything indicates that the serious impact on the Rodalies de Catalunya service on the 12-M election day, which has left Barcelona without any conventional trains, affecting all lines, is a an “intentional action” that sought to cause serious damage to the railway network, as sources from the department directed by Óscar Puente have explained to La Vanguardia. The incident will take hours to resolve given the severity and extent of the damage.
The Government has described as “intolerable” the incidents on this election Sunday, which may “affect” the right of Catalans to vote in the regional elections.
The sources consulted from the ministry recall that the incident, the most serious that has occurred on the state railway network around Barcelona in recent years, has as its origin the theft of cable near the Montcada Bifurcació station, an event that caused a fire. a few meters due to an overload in the electrical voltage. In addition, two other fires have broken out in the tunnel near Glòries, the origin of which is being investigated, and which has forced the circulation of trains throughout the urban center of Barcelona.
The cable theft – about 40 meters in total – occurred around 4.30 in the morning. “The point is located about 300 meters from the Montcada Bifurcació station and, from there, the wiring ends at an interlocking,” the ministerial sources have detailed. “It is a key railway junction in the north of Barcelona – they recalled – with a high number of tracks, many point changes and signals and with an Adif maintenance center and a Renfe workshop.”
The incident, the same sources highlighted, “happened at a point that is not easily accessible, in a pass under the highway, surrounded by reeds and which has to be climbed up an embankment.” This would support the thesis that this is not just another cable theft – they are common and in this case the amount stolen has been small – but that this action would have been intended to cause serious damage to the railway service on such an important day. like today, when the Catalan elections are being held. The ministry insists that, to a greater or lesser extent, and although it is “waiting for the conclusions of the police investigation, everything indicates that this is an intentional action.”
In a technical meeting held this afternoon in Sants, Adif technicians stated that the main hypothesis is that the three fires – the one in Montcada and those in Barcelona – were due to the overvoltage produced by the cable cut. Therefore, all incidents would have the same origin.
Representatives of the Generalitat, Renfe, Adif, Barcelona City Council and Mossos will hold a meeting this afternoon in which they will design a public transport plan for tomorrow, Monday, in the event that the incident continues to affect the railway service.
