Three hours of complaints on the train from Barcelona to the Pyrenees: "You don't know when you leave or when you arrive"

Friday afternoons are synonymous with problems for many passengers leaving Barcelona for the Pyrenees by train.

Students, workers and tourists squeeze into the car to get off at one of the 35 stops on Renfe's Rodalies line R3, which connects L'Hospitalet de Llobregat with La Tor de Querol.

On November 4, passengers on the 4:30 p.m. train had to travel a section of the route by bus due to a breakdown in the electrical system;

They were also held at the Ribes de Freser stop because the driver had completed his daily driving hours.

After resuming their march, they arrived at Puigcerdà at 10:30 p.m., three hours late.

It took twice as long as normal.

This episode adds to the long history of incidents that weighs on the Renfe service in Catalonia, threatened by the poor state of the infrastructure, sections with limited speed or breakdowns in the catenaries.

The incidents are almost daily.

And they get more complicated when there are storms, sometimes with rockfalls.

This complex network is managed between the Generalitat, which sets schedules, and the Ministry of Transport through Renfe and Adif, which manage trains and infrastructure, respectively.

Between the complaints of abandonment by users and the crossing of accusations between administrations, this year 3,000 million euros have been allocated to the Catalan railway landscape, between the state and regional budgets, which begin to materialize after years without executions in Rodalies, Metro de Barcelona and Generalitat Railways.

While passengers take time to notice these large projects in their day-to-day lives, Adif sources defend that "in the short and medium term" the works started at various points in the Rodalies network to increase the traffic capacity of the roads will be noticed. and reduce travel times.

The scene of November 4, Friday, is very familiar to Alejandra Calzadilla.

This year she had to go from Puigcerdà to the same stop in Ribes to look for her mother by car: she had been stranded with other passengers from the R3 after a breakdown.

This worker from a local business switched to the bus since she moved to the Pyrenean town: “As soon as the driver is two minutes late, he calls you and lets you know.

That on the train is unthinkable”, says the neighbor.

She now only uses the train to travel around France.

For her, it is another world: "The seats are not hard, the screens work and there is even a charger for the mobile."

Puigcerdà stop, on the border with France.

MASSIMILIANO MINOCRI

Adif indicates that the "priority" improvement of the R3 is the doubling of tracks between the Parets del Vallès and La Garriga stations, a 17-kilometre section between Barcelona and Vic, the most frequented stations.

The work absorbs more than half of the 98 million euros that the company is currently executing on projects on this line (it also includes changes to the electrical network and station access).

Transport studies extending the duplication to Vic, but Adif does not specify the calendar beyond the Rodalies 2020-2030 plan.

The other pending issue is the modernization of limited speed points where trains run more slowly for safety.

Adif does not specify how many of these sections in need of works are currently on the R3, but defends that recent reforms have been made, such as the Toses tunnel, in 2020, which has allowed the train to go from running at 30 to running at 100 kilometers per hour.

The number and state of the trains are the other pillar for improving the service.

Renfe assures that in three years they will carry out a major renewal of their fleet with an investment of almost 1,000 million euros.

56 defective Rodalies trains will be replaced (20% of the current 270) and 45 will be incorporated (16% more).

Nuria Hernando is one of the 24,000 users of the R3.

She has been one for 2 months, when she began her medical degree at the University of Vic. The 18-year-old student assures that she falls asleep in bed at 10 at night.

To start her classes at 8.30 she has to get up at 5.50, to catch the 6.20 train from the Barcelona neighborhood of Torre Baró.

She could wait for the 7:20 train, but it "never arrives on time," she explains.

"In order not to be overwhelmed, because they lower our grade if we arrive late, I have to take the 6.20."

And she adds: “With one more train between seven and eight I would be happy.

I don't mind making an hour's journey, but there are few trains and in the end it's inhumane”.

In the same time slot at 7:00, Núria Gil takes the reverse route.

In the six years that she has been traveling to her job as a social educator, she affirms that she must be patient with her daily delays of half an hour, adding round trips: “The strange thing is that the train arrives on time.

You don't know when you leave or when you arrive.

Renfe clings to the fact that its trains have an average punctuality rate of 90% —after three minutes the train is considered to be late, according to the company—, although the perception of users and the complaints on social networks far from this percentage.

Although Gil does not have official data, he has his own statistics.

A local radio program interviewed her for two months to ask her what her incidence had been on her day: "We added five hours of delays in September and October."

Before Rodalies' free subscription campaign, she describes that there were months in which she got her monthly subscription free: "They would refund all the money for delays of more than 15 minutes".

Many of Nuria's friends have switched to the bus because "it is more reliable and more frequent, although it is not free".

She discards it because she gets dizzy and finds it "very uncomfortable for an hour's journey."

The association

(So they don't take the train from us) has brought together the struggles of R3 users for nine years.

Their protests have prevented the closure of some stations, such as Torelló.

The spokesman Marc Janeras assures that in the last decade "the lack of structural investment in Rodalies and the commitment to high speed" have accumulated.

For him, the main challenge of this means of transport is "reliability": the number of regular users of the R3 this year is 10% less than in 2019, according to Renfe.

Janeras questions Renfe's statistics.

"The data of 90% punctuality is insulting to the passengers," he denounces.

However, as positive elements, the extension of the free subscription and the improvements in the R3 schedule in recent months stand out.

However, he regrets that the delays, the single track and the obsolete sections are obstacles that will continue to mark this decade.

You can follow EL PAÍS Catalunya on