ONE month on from a fatal accident near Barcelona, the Rodalies commuter rail system is still running with closed lines, speed limits and 25 per cent fewer passengers.
Traffic on Barcelona’s Rodalies commuter rail network has sharply declined one month after a deadly accident in Gelida, with six lines disrupted, 210 speed-restricted sections in place and around 100,000 daily passengers no longer using the service.
The crash, which happened near Gelida in Barcelona province, resulted in the death of a 28-year-old trainee train driver from Sevilla after a retaining wall from the AP-7 motorway collapsed onto the tracks after a spell of heavy rain.
Since then, the network has been operating at far from normal levels.
Rodalies normally carries around 400,000 passengers a day.
According to the company, around 25 per cent of users have stopped using the service – equivalent to roughly 100,000 people.
READ MORE: BREAKING: Driver dead and at least 20 passengers injured after train derails near Barcelona
Many have switched to cars, the Metro system or even remote working.
Road traffic entering and leaving Barcelona has increased by around 5 per – approximately 36,000 additional vehicles – leading to regular traffic jams.
Metro usage in the city also surged, with around 700,000 extra passengers recorded in the first week after the accident.
Overcrowding on the underground, once largely limited to rush hour and weekends, is now more frequent.
For those who continue to rely on Rodalies, disruptions remain widespread with six lines currently affected.
Lines R3 and R8, which connect La Garriga with La Tor de Carol and Martorell with Granollers respectively, remain completely closed.
Lines R4 and R15 are partially disrupted, including sections between Sant Sadurní and Martorell, and between Reus and Roja.
Line R3 also has no service between Barcelona and La Garriga.
Line R7 is affected between Cerdanyola and the University of Cerdanyola.
Some of these disruptions pre-date the accident, with restoration dates set for January 2027 for R3 and May 2026 for R7.
On parts of lines R1, R4 and RL4, shuttle trains and replacement bus services are being used to complete journeys.
Across the network, there are now 210 sections of where trains must reduce speed for safety reasons. Two weeks earlier, that figure stood at 193.
The situation has triggered political debate over the planned transfer of Rodalies management to the Generalitat of Catalunya.
Catalan nationalist parties argue that accelerating the transfer would help resolve the crisis.
Pere Macias, the commissioner overseeing the transfer process, said that if the Catalan government had been managing the service, the current crisis would not have occurred.
Pro-independence party Junts per Catalunya has rejected that claim, calling the transfer a ‘fake’ arrangement that merely distributes responsibilities between administrations.
Its general secretary, Jordi Turull, said the public does not know who is ultimately in charge under the current joint management model.
Since the service is still not back to its usual standard, passengers are feeling less sure about using Rodalies
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