Rodalies trains to remain free until March 31 as service has not yet fully regained normality

Catalonia's commuter rail service will remain free to use until March 31, after the network has not yet regained normality.

Rodalies services have been free to use ever since January's fatal accident in Gelida. 

It was initially set to be free until March 15, the date the government set for normal service to resume, but now the exceptoinal measure has been extended two further weeks.

The new date of the end of March also coincides with that set by authorities to resolve most of the incidents detected on the network following the inspections carried out after the Gelida accident.

The measure was established after major disruptions were experienced across the commuter rail network in January, after a storm caused a container wall to fall onto train tracks, and a crash took the life of one person.

Although the free service was only supposed to last one month, from January 26 to February 26, it was extended until March 15, when the Catalan government hoped that normalcy could be restored to the entire network. The reality, however, has proven otherwise.

There are still sections without service on the R3, R4, R8, and R15 lines, and more than 200 temporary speed restrictions remain in place, causing regular delays on the rest of the lines.

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"Worst crisis" in Rodalies history

Catalonia’s commuter rail service, Rodalies, is currently going through its “worst crisis” in history, according to train driver and union leader, Francisco Cardenas. 

Cardenas is the spokesperson for the UGT trade union of train drivers, and he tells Catalan News that in his 41 years with the company, he has never seen problems as bad. 

Meanwhile, almost all the problems the rail service is enduring are down to a historic lack of investments, the director of Terminus, a research centre focusing on transport, Joan Carles Salmerón, concludes.