Entire short- and medium-distance train network run by Spanish Government in Catalonia collapses
CNA
Barcelona (ACN).- There has been railway chaos throughout
Catalonia due to a major failure in the control centre of the IT system
of the network run by Adif and operated by Renfe, two public companies
both owned and managed by the Spanish Government. This serious incident
is to be added to a long list of problems which have occurred in this
network during the last decade mainly caused by a lack of investment in
infrastructure by the Spanish Government, as opposed to the high levels
of public funds invested in Madrid's rail network. All the short- and
medium-distance trains in Catalonia that use Adif's railways stopped
completely between 6.30 am and 7.45 am, affecting some 200 trains and
80,000 people on board, just at the start of rush hour. Meanwhile, the
network run by the Catalan Government was functioning without problems
and indeed has registered very few incidents in the last years. When the
Renfe trains gradually started to work again around 8 am, they were
running with more than a 1 hour delay and took the entire morning to gradually recover the accumulated delay.
Thousands and thousands of people arrived late to work today,
without Renfe offering information about estimated times or providing
alternative transport means. Passengers were outraged by a situation
that happens all too often, in a network where there is some sort of
incident or delay almost every day. This Thursday's overall delay was
gradually reduced in the hours that followed but delays continued to
affect most of the trains circulating for the entire morning and even
parallel services, such as the High-Speed network (called AVE). One AVE
train was stuck for 2 hours in a tunnel, coinciding with the surrounding
chaos. The Catalan Government has stated that it considers the
situation to be "unacceptable" and has demanded immediate investment to
upgrade the network. Otherwise, it will request the transfer of the
infrastructure and the service.
Passengers outraged with Renfe's service
"I've been using [Renfe] for the last 10 years and it's a mess",
complained Daniel Asensi this morning, who got stuck on his way to work.
Asensi crosses a large part of Barcelona's Metropolitan Area each
morning, travelling from his home in Sant Celoni, in the north-eastern
edge of the Catalan Capital's Metropolitan Area, to Bellvitge, a
neighbourhood of L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, located between El Prat
Airport and Montjuic hill. There is a short-distance train line that
covers the 60 km distance between the two areas operated by Renfe.
However, it registers some sort of incident almost every day.
Furthermore, Asensi complained about the lack of information: "The
information screens do not work...as always…as always", he stressed.
"They say they will fix them" but what “they have to do is change the
company", he added.
Another passenger, who was coming from Zaragoza and was waiting at
Barcelona's Sants Station to take a short-distance train to Barcelona El
Prat Airport to catch a flight, was also affected by the lack of
information. "I've been waiting for a while already, but more important
than this is the fact that I don't know for how long I will have to
wait, so I cannot make any time estimation and I will probably have to
take a taxi", he told ACN's Raul Murillo.
The lack of information not only irritated passengers but caused
additional problems. In the middle of the morning’s chaos, when trains
started to circulate again, many information panels were giving wrong
information or were not informing about which trains were arriving.
Manuel Ordóñez was in Tarragona and was supposed to travel to
Torredembarra to go to work, an 11 minute journey in the direction of
Barcelona. However, in the middle of the chaos he accidentally took a
train that was going directly to Barcelona, without making any stops in
between. Once he arrived at the Catalan capital, 80 km north from where
he was supposed to go, he had to find a train to go back and finally
arrive at his destination, where his boss had already been waiting for
him for quite a while.
The IT system collapsed
The reason for this Thursday's chaos is not directly related to the
historical lack of investment in infrastructure in the rails, the
electrical system or the stations of Adif's short- and medium-distance
network in Catalonia, but to a failure of the IT system, provided by the
external private company Schneider. However, in the minds of the
thousands of people that each day use this service and are affected by
incidents day after day, this Thursday's chaos is just another episode
in the unacceptable and long list of problems of the last decade.
In fact, in December 2007 there was already a massive demonstration
in Barcelona, which came after a chaotic summer and autumn of constant
delays in the Renfe service provided in the Catalan capital’s
Metropolitan Area. It is in fact one of the first demonstrations where
many citizens started to ask for “their right to decide” how to manage
infrastructure, another ingredient of the current pro-independence
movement. Meanwhile, the Spanish Government was investing billions in
enlarging and upgrading Madrid's short-distance train network during the
2000s. The Catalan Government back then requested the transfer of the
service, in order to guarantee investment.
The main part of the service is still run from Madrid
In December 2009, the Spanish Government transferred the management
of secondary parts of the service such as cleaning, corporate image and
time schedules. However it did not transfer the railway infrastructure,
the stations, the electric systems or the trains. Therefore, the main
part of the service was still directly managed by Spanish
Government-owned companies, Adif and Renfe.
This Thursday's incident has put the total transfer of the service to
the Catalan Government once again on the table, particularly taking
into account the fact that the network run by the Catalan Executive
works without major incidents and has a high approval among its users.
This network, called Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat (FCG), was built and
expanded due to the insufficient geographic coverage of Renfe.
The Catalan Minister for Transport, Santi Vila, requested an urgent
meeting with Adif's President, Gonzalo Ferrer. Ferrer came to Vila's
office the same morning and could not guarantee that this sort of
incident would not happen again. In fact, he admitted that they are
providing "a terrible service" and that incidents such as this
Thursday's "cannot happen". He also did not rule out the possibility to
issue a fine to Schneider for the major failure of the IT system. A few
hours later, the Spanish Ministry of Transport announced it was stopping
Schneider’s contract for this unacceptable incident.
The Catalan Government may ask for the transfer of the service
Vila explained that they "firstly" had requested Adif to give them "a
detailed explanation not only about what has happened – which seems to
be already known – but also about which measures they are envisaging to
make sure this does not happen again". He then sent a clear warning
message: "if these incidents are not clarified in a convincing way
within the next few days and they have not taken measures to prevent
this from happening again, the Catalan Government will demand the
complete transfer of this service".
without Renfe offering information about estimated times or providing
alternative transport means. Passengers were outraged by a situation
that happens all too often, in a network where there is some sort of
incident or delay almost every day. This Thursday's overall delay was
gradually reduced in the hours that followed but delays continued to
affect most of the trains circulating for the entire morning and even
parallel services, such as the High-Speed network (called AVE). One AVE
train was stuck for 2 hours in a tunnel, coinciding with the surrounding
chaos. The Catalan Government has stated that it considers the
situation to be "unacceptable" and has demanded immediate investment to
upgrade the network. Otherwise, it will request the transfer of the
infrastructure and the service.
Passengers outraged with Renfe's service
"I've been using [Renfe] for the last 10 years and it's a mess",
complained Daniel Asensi this morning, who got stuck on his way to work.
Asensi crosses a large part of Barcelona's Metropolitan Area each
morning, travelling from his home in Sant Celoni, in the north-eastern
edge of the Catalan Capital's Metropolitan Area, to Bellvitge, a
neighbourhood of L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, located between El Prat
Airport and Montjuic hill. There is a short-distance train line that
covers the 60 km distance between the two areas operated by Renfe.
However, it registers some sort of incident almost every day.
Furthermore, Asensi complained about the lack of information: "The
information screens do not work...as always…as always", he stressed.
"They say they will fix them" but what “they have to do is change the
company", he added.
Another passenger, who was coming from Zaragoza and was waiting at
Barcelona's Sants Station to take a short-distance train to Barcelona El
Prat Airport to catch a flight, was also affected by the lack of
information. "I've been waiting for a while already, but more important
than this is the fact that I don't know for how long I will have to
wait, so I cannot make any time estimation and I will probably have to
take a taxi", he told ACN's Raul Murillo.
The lack of information not only irritated passengers but caused
additional problems. In the middle of the morning’s chaos, when trains
started to circulate again, many information panels were giving wrong
information or were not informing about which trains were arriving.
Manuel Ordóñez was in Tarragona and was supposed to travel to
Torredembarra to go to work, an 11 minute journey in the direction of
Barcelona. However, in the middle of the chaos he accidentally took a
train that was going directly to Barcelona, without making any stops in
between. Once he arrived at the Catalan capital, 80 km north from where
he was supposed to go, he had to find a train to go back and finally
arrive at his destination, where his boss had already been waiting for
him for quite a while.
The IT system collapsed
The reason for this Thursday's chaos is not directly related to the
historical lack of investment in infrastructure in the rails, the
electrical system or the stations of Adif's short- and medium-distance
network in Catalonia, but to a failure of the IT system, provided by the
external private company Schneider. However, in the minds of the
thousands of people that each day use this service and are affected by
incidents day after day, this Thursday's chaos is just another episode
in the unacceptable and long list of problems of the last decade.
In fact, in December 2007 there was already a massive demonstration
in Barcelona, which came after a chaotic summer and autumn of constant
delays in the Renfe service provided in the Catalan capital’s
Metropolitan Area. It is in fact one of the first demonstrations where
many citizens started to ask for “their right to decide” how to manage
infrastructure, another ingredient of the current pro-independence
movement. Meanwhile, the Spanish Government was investing billions in
enlarging and upgrading Madrid's short-distance train network during the
2000s. The Catalan Government back then requested the transfer of the
service, in order to guarantee investment.
The main part of the service is still run from Madrid
In December 2009, the Spanish Government transferred the management
of secondary parts of the service such as cleaning, corporate image and
time schedules. However it did not transfer the railway infrastructure,
the stations, the electric systems or the trains. Therefore, the main
part of the service was still directly managed by Spanish
Government-owned companies, Adif and Renfe.
This Thursday's incident has put the total transfer of the service to
the Catalan Government once again on the table, particularly taking
into account the fact that the network run by the Catalan Executive
works without major incidents and has a high approval among its users.
This network, called Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat (FCG), was built and
expanded due to the insufficient geographic coverage of Renfe.
The Catalan Minister for Transport, Santi Vila, requested an urgent
meeting with Adif's President, Gonzalo Ferrer. Ferrer came to Vila's
office the same morning and could not guarantee that this sort of
incident would not happen again. In fact, he admitted that they are
providing "a terrible service" and that incidents such as this
Thursday's "cannot happen". He also did not rule out the possibility to
issue a fine to Schneider for the major failure of the IT system. A few
hours later, the Spanish Ministry of Transport announced it was stopping
Schneider’s contract for this unacceptable incident.
The Catalan Government may ask for the transfer of the service
Vila explained that they "firstly" had requested Adif to give them "a
detailed explanation not only about what has happened – which seems to
be already known – but also about which measures they are envisaging to
make sure this does not happen again". He then sent a clear warning
message: "if these incidents are not clarified in a convincing way
within the next few days and they have not taken measures to prevent
this from happening again, the Catalan Government will demand the
complete transfer of this service".
More on
Adif, Catalan Government, Centralism, Delay, High-Speed Trains, Investment, Metropolitan Trains, Railway, Regional Trains, Renfe, Santi Vila, Schneider, Short-Distance Trains, Spanish Government
A short-distance train at Mataró station is ready to work again after the morning chaos (by J. Pujolar)
