The works have reached the Vic line after decades of demands from users and local councils in the area, who bear the burden of having a single track that blows up the R3 schedules in the event of any incident. The work prior to the construction of the double track on the section between Parets del Vallès and La Garriga is already underway. For this to become a reality, the previous effects on travelers are unavoidable, who will have to endure a few months of bus travel as a toll to have better service starting in 2025.
The first cut will arrive on October 12 and will last until the second half of January, with the service initially interrupted from Mollet Santa Rosa to Figaró. Starting in November the impact will be reduced and the trains will reach Parets. It is estimated that there will be about 12,000 people affected every day, according to sources from the Ministry of Transport.
Between stations without trains there will be an alternative road service with some buses that will make 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 the Sagrera-Meridiana station in Barcelona. In the afternoon those direct buses will make the trip in the reverse 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 about the students and workers who travel from the Catalan capital to Vic or Vallès on the tomorrow and return in the afternoon. For their part, the R3 trains between Parets and l’Hospitalet will maintain the usual schedules, the same as from Figaró to Puigcerdà, with a frequency of passage approximately every half hour.
The biggest cut in service will come in the summer of next year, when the tracks will be laid in the 18-kilometer section that will become double track and replacement buses will have to be used again for more than three months. For now, in this first phase, the work will focus on adapting the stations to the future scheme.
The total investment in the works amounts to 155 million euros and includes the removal of level crossings in La Garriga and the construction of a new station in Parets del Vallès. This aspect is still in the awarding process and is expected to become a reality in 2026. For later, the section currently under construction will be split to the north (from Figaró to Vic) and south (from Montcada to Parets), thus giving true overall sense to the claimed improvement of the R3 line.
