The improvement in the weather, for now, does not mean that rail transport in Catalonia will return to normal. Not at all. The Rodalies service remains practically paralyzed and the recovery of circulation is conditioned by the work that Adif continues to carry out on the infrastructure and by the demand of the drivers for sufficient safety guarantees before returning to certain sections.
The situation has left a good part of the network without rail circulation, with alternative road services on several routes. Renfe states that it is conducting exploratory runs with empty trains as Adif recovers the affected sections, before reopening them to passenger service.
The problem arises after Renfe announced on Sunday that circulation would gradually recover once the state of the tracks was verified. The inspections allowed for the recovery of some services, but the network has not been able to return to normal operation.
Which lines have trains and which operate with buses
The official information from Rodalies for this Wednesday shows a network still very fragmented. The R1 maintains trains between L'Hospitalet de Llobregat and Arenys de Mar, while the section between Arenys and Maçanet-Massanes is covered by road. On the R2 Nord, trains run between Granollers Centre and the airport and there are buses between Granollers and Sant Celoni.
The R2 Sud does not provide service between Sant Vicenç de Calders and Vilanova i la Geltrú, although trains do run between Vilanova and Barcelona Estació de França. On the R3, there are trains between La Garriga and Ripoll and alternative transport between Ripoll and Puigcerdà. The R4 maintains circulation between Sant Vicenç de Calders and Barcelona Sants, while the section between Manresa and Terrassa has road transport.
The R7 remains without rail service and the R8 operates entirely with alternative road transport. On the R11, there are buses between Portbou, Figueres, and Sils, as well as between Girona and Sant Andreu. The R13 and R14 lines maintain trains between Lleida-Pirineus and Les Borges Blanques, but offer road transport on other sections. The RT1 also operates entirely with buses.
The drivers demand guarantees before returning to circulate
The engineers' unions argue that they need to have technical information about the sections that are back in operation before taking on the circulation. The conflict, therefore, centers on the necessary safety conditions for drivers to resume service.
The demand has as a precedent the security crisis experienced in Rodalies after the accident in Gelida last January, when a driver died after a wall collapsed onto a train during another episode of rain. After that accident, the drivers demanded greater guarantees and procedures for reviewing the infrastructure were established before recovering certain circulations.
Renfe maintains that safety is the priority and that exploratory runs serve precisely to check the conditions of the tracks before reopening them to the public. The operator insists that as Adif resolves the incidents caused by the rains, the lines that are still affected will be gradually recovered.
Sources: Rodalies de Catalunya, Adif, Renfe, and Europa Press.