A new incident this morning on commuter trains in Catalonia has once again caused considerable service delays. The Government has decided to return to the matter -for the umpteenth time- and has announced this afternoon that the Minister of the Presidency, Laura Vilagrà, will send a letter to the Minister of Transport, Raquel Sánchez, so that the full transfer is again demanded de Rodalies and request the convening of a summit to deal with the issue with all the departments involved.
The spokeswoman for the Government, Patrícia Plaja, has assured this afternoon at the press conference after the Executive Council that “it is not acceptable” that this is the general tone of this train service. Plaja has attributed the constant incidents in the suburbs to “systemic negligence on the part of the State”. Vilagrà led the Government meeting today in the absence of Pere Aragonès, who is on a trip to South America.
The Government has missed “investment, communication and sensitivity” to tackle a problem that has lasted for more than two decades. All this, in the opinion of the spokesperson, harms citizens on a daily basis. “In the last six months there have been an average of four days a week with affectations”, she recalled, while pointing out that “it is clear that the Rodalies service is not up to the standards of Catalonia”.
Plaja has advanced part of the content of the letter that Vilagrà will send to the minister and has affirmed that in it the minister will denounce “the systemic situation of neglect” and will once again demand that the transfer of Rodalies be completed, including the delayed investments. “There are no more excuses.”
Today, the Catalan train service has accumulated delays since early in the morning due to problems in the electricity supply to the Adif facilities. The affected lines have been R1, R3, R4, R7 and R8. Traffic was interrupted between Sants station, in Barcelona, ??and Castellbisbal.
The stoppage due to the breakdown in the railway infrastructure in Cornellà occurred between 5:52 and 7:00 a.m.
The history of claims of the Generalitat is endless with regard to Rodalies. In 2010, when José Montilla was President of the Generalitat and José Luis Zapatero President of the Government, a transfer of powers was agreed that the Generalitat has always considered insufficient. Catalonia took control of the schedules and fares, but basic issues remained unanswered, such as the management of trains, personnel and infrastructure, which continue to be in the hands of Renfe and Adif.
