Delays in Rodalies commuter trains again on Tuesday after another incident in control centre

Tuesday morning has seen further delays in the Rodalies commuter rail system across Catalonia.

An incident with the signaling systems at the Adif control center has forced rail traffic to be suspended twice during the morning.

The first suspension of rail services came at 7.10 am after an incident was registered at the control centre. This forced the entire service to be stopped "for safety reasons," according to the Renfe spokesperson in Catalonia, Antonio Carmona.

After five minutes, the service began to gradually resume, but the incident occurred again shortly after 8 am, with traffic halted for another five minutes.

Once restored, train traffic on all lines will gradually recover.

Carmona told radio station Catalunya Ràdio on Tuesday morning that although the incidents lasted "a few minutes," they have an impact on the entire service. Thus, recovery is "not immediate, but gradual."

The spokesperson avoided speculating on the causes of the incident, and said that the focus is on guaranteeing mobility. "The trains are now running," he reiterated.

Nevertheless, he admitted he could not guarantee that further incidents would not occur.

Commuter rail disruptions

Catalonia's commuter rail network has seen weeks of disruptions due to various accidents and incidents. 

On January 20, a container wall fell onto the train tracks after a heavy storm, resulting in a crash that saw one person lose their life. 

This was followed by days of the rail service being shut down while inspectors ensured the safety of the infrastructure network. 

Adding to the chaos, a section of the AP-7 highway was also closed for days at the point of the train crash, due to fears of another collapse. The motorway was since reopened, but the section was closed again on January 29, with works expected to last two weeks.

A week later, various incidents caused service shutdowns once more, eventually leading authorities to dismiss the director of Rodalies and the head of maintenance at Adif, the rail infrastructure managing company. 

After the suspension of the network, trains were back running with reduced services.

By February 2, and despite government assurances that service would resume on Monday, most lines - 11 of 19 - were still partially operating with bus alternatives.