Disruptions to R2 commuter rail line to last 'three to four weeks'

A train signal box fire at the Adif railway infrastructure management facilities in Gavà, a coastal town not far south of Barcelona, on Monday evening, continues to cause disruptions.

Only one R2 train is running every half an hour between the town of Sant Vicenç de Calders and Estació de França station in Barcelona Tuesday morning.

Officials from Spain's transport ministry say the incident is "serious" and that normal service will not return to the R2 South line for "three or four weeks."

Xavier Flores, secretary general of infrastructure in the ministry of transport, told reporters in Barcelona that it is "one of the worst incidents you can have: it leaves you blind in terms of train control and safety."

The improvement to the services will be "progressive," the official said. "If today it was possible to run two trains per direction per hour, for Wednesday the forecast is that the frequency will increase to three trains per direction per hour."

The R13, R14, R15, R16, and R17 lines from Tarragona and the Ebre region in southern Catalonia to Barcelona are also being diverted through the Penedès area, inland from Gavà.

Long-distance trains connecting Murcia and the Valencia region to Catalonia have also been affected by the incident. 

The train signal box fire broke out around 9 pm on Monday in Gavà, trapping hundreds of passengers in various R2 and regional trains for over two hours. Adif workers are yet to determine the cause of the incident in order to resolve it and do not know when service will be fully restored. 

Delays and incidents on Rodalies commuter lines have long been a point of contention in Catalonia, with passengers and politicians alike calling for further investment from Spain in the system. 

Fury among commuters

Passengers affected by the breakdown in Gavà were left fed up with the "shameful" delays that "repeat every day."

Some told the Catalan News Agency (ACN) that the trains stop for twenty minutes at each station and that they feel like "sardines in a can" because the carriages are too full.

Pablo, one commuter told ACN that he was "at the Castelldefels beach stop at 9:15 and it's 10:30 and we're still at Castelldefels town [a stop away], so we're going to have to be patient today."

Rosa, a passenger who had an important appointment in Barcelona at noon, expressed the same disappointment and tension. She said that she left home in time to ensure that he could arrive for the appointment at the scheduled time: "I hope to be there", she said. 

Maria, a regular user of the Rodalies line who took the train at 08.50 in Vilanova i la Geltrú, was much more upset. "It's 10:15 a.m. and we're still in Castelldefels because the train has stopped for twenty minutes at each station," she said, calling the situation "shameful" as she says it's "the same story every day."

Catalan government calls for solutions

The Catalan government has sided with the passengers affected by the delays and in their complaints about the lack of alternative transport. 

Spokesperson for the executive, Patrícia Plaja, explained that they have already contacted Renfe, the managing company of the Rodalies line, to solve the problem, adding that "the government will do whatever it can to reverse" the situation.

"Obviously, the operator should provide a service similar to the usual one, and that's why we ask for it. And if Renfe is not able to guarantee it, it will be the government itself that will roll up its sleeves to make it so," said Plaja.

"The fact that incidents are repeated and are common does not mean that they are not news. The users do not want to normalize it and neither does the government. Unfortunately, this is the local service we have", she concluded.