Rodalies suffers a systemic crisis due to the total neglect of network maintenance and the absence of investments for decades. The hundreds of thousands of users are the main victims of this gigantic blunder that will take years to resolve. To all this, we must add the poor information provided to travelers and an external element that further worsens the situation.
Read more Copper thieves operate on the Rodalies tracks almost daily
I am referring to the theft of copper cable on the railway network. This issue caused a political clash in May 2024 between the Government and the Generalitat when the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, reported that the problem was much more prevalent in Catalonia than in the rest of Spain and accused the Mossos d’Esquadra of lack of surveillance. After that exchange of accusations, the political fight faded, but the thefts have continued and this year we are on track for a record of copper cable theft in Catalonia.
Our colleague David Guerrero provides very worrying data today in the Cities section. In the first half of this year, these thefts in Catalonia have doubled compared to the same period in 2025 and the thefts account for 37.8% of all in Spain. In short, there is a daily copper theft in Rodalies, the highest level in the last eight years. We are told that the cause is that the price of copper is sky-high, but they avoid acknowledging that there is also a lack of police and legal attention that this serious problem deserves. Let us remember that each theft leaves thousands of travelers stranded.
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In these years of incessant thefts, the thieves have refined their methods. They have realized that it is easier to steal at the improvement works in Rodalies that are being carried out and they go directly to steal the copper before it is installed on the tracks.
It is clear that we have a surveillance problem of an essential infrastructure. And don’t tell me that we have to wait to modify the Penal Code to increase sentences for copper thieves because this could have been done more than two years ago. If they had really believed it was an urgent and important matter, the legal measure would be in force and the control systems activated because technology has advanced a lot and can help end this nightmare. Don’t wait any longer.
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