It was not an unexpected situation like those that usually occur daily in Rodalies. The solar eclipse was an event for which the Generalitat had been preparing for months, with an interdepartmental commission where representatives from the different conselleries involved in the special device to facilitate the enjoyment of the astronomical phenomenon regularly met. And everything worked… except public transport.
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The railway service was not up to the circumstances due to a lack of planning by the operator –Renfe– and the service holder –the Generalitat–, who did not prepare any special device to absorb the intense mobility associated with the eclipse. The most mistreated users were those who traveled to Tarragona and Terres de l’Ebre to see the astronomical phenomenon in its entirety.
While the Servei Català de Trànsit had been warning for days about the traffic collapse that could occur on the roads, no one in the Department of Territory thought that trains could also be overwhelmed. In fact, in the Generalitat’s recommendations for the eclipse, there was not even a mention of public transport.
A breakdown worsened the situation in the afternoon and prevented thousands of users from reaching their destination in time to see the eclipse
Even so, thousands of users bet on regional trains to travel to the municipalities located in the totality band. Many travelers arrived late and in poor condition at their destination, besides being soaked in sweat after traveling crowded with very high temperatures in the trains. An incident in the railway signaling between Castelldefels and Garraf between four and five in the afternoon complicated everything even more and unleashed panic among the passengers on board a train so full that they felt like they were running out of breath. Some pulled the emergency levers, and the train had to be canceled at Sants station, further worsening the collapse on the platforms.
“It could have been better anticipated, things did not work as they should have, and when there was a breakdown, chaos ensued,” acknowledges La Vanguardia the Secretary of Mobility of the Generalitat, Manel Nadal. In the same vein, the operations manager of Rodalies, David Andrés, spoke yesterday on the main radio stations to apologize to users who did not have a satisfactory trip and to defend that if more trains were not put in, it is because they do not have them.
“We do not have more trains and we cannot stop providing service to the rest of the people of Catalonia,” justified Andrés, highlighting the large number of trains out of service due to maintenance problems and the communication problems the public operator has after sidelining its historic spokesperson, Antonio Carmona.
A single extra train returning to Barcelona proved incapable of absorbing the large number of passengers
For the return, Rodalies officials decided the day before to add a single extra train back from Tortosa around ten at night. It was not something planned well in advance: it was announced barely 24 hours before the eclipse after receiving some complaints on social media. Also, with demand skyrocketing, it became evident that chartering a single reinforcement train for such a volume of people was clearly insufficient, almost a bad joke.
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Tarragona station overflowed. Inside, on the platform, scenes of chaos and panic were again experienced. Outside, a long queue tried unsuccessfully to access, and the Mossos d’Esquadra had to regulate access, as happens in the metro after large events such as massive concerts and football matches. Finally, Renfe improvised and mobilized another train to pick up those who had not been able to board, around a hundred people who had not been able to get on the previous ones. “They had to wait, but there was no need to worry, the Generalitat gave the order that no one should be left at the stations, whether by trains or buses,” emphasizes Nadal.
Besides Tarragona, stations such as Torredembarra, Altafulla, or Amposta doubled the average occupancy on Wednesday. The R16 stations went from 1,800 daily users to 3,600. In the case of the R15, which connects Reus with Barcelona passing through Vila-seca and has its final stretch in Ribera d’Ebre, it recorded up to 600 more validations than the daily average, an increase of 60%.
User platforms demand explanations and transparency
For the spokesperson of the platform Dignitat a les Vies, Anna Gómez, “if Rodalies could not handle the demand, they should have said so with time and margin; and if the Government wanted to send thousands of people, they should have asked beforehand, because Rodalies has left them exposed.” The platform, with the support of other entities defending public transport in Catalonia, has demanded both the administration holding the service and the operator to make public the contingency plan they had for this extraordinary day, to know how it was executed, what failed, and who should assume responsibilities.
All opposition parties demand explanations from the Government about the failed transport operation
The issue has also provoked complaints from the opposition. All parties asked the Government of Salvador Illa for explanations about the chaos yesterday. Junts filed a series of written questions in the Parliament about “who decided on a clearly insufficient transport operation,” and ERC criticized on Instagram the “total collapse in Rodalies” if “Illa and the Government had been preparing the eclipse for more than a year.” Meanwhile, the Popular Party’s Juan Fernández stressed that the problems in Rodalies “are no surprise, but the daily life of Catalans,” and the common’s deputy Lluís Mijoler asked: “700 Mossos, 150,000 glasses, and restrictions on the AP-7. And railway mobility?”.
Also, the mayor of Tarragona, the socialist Rubén Viñuales, was very critical yesterday of the railway chaos, due to the “lack of foresight and tact with users,” and demanded explanations and accountability for what happened.
