Catalan president blames Rodalies commuter line disruption on lack of investment for 'decades'

Upon visiting the Gavà Rodalies train station on Monday, Catalan president Pere Aragonès blamed a lack of investment from Spain spanning "decades" for the consistent problems seen in the train network. 

Gavà, which has been the epicenter of the disruption to the R2 South commuter rail line over the past week, Aragonès took the opportunity to once again call for the complete transfer of powers over the Rodalies line from Spain to Catalan authorities. 

Aragonès, accompanied by Catalonia's territory minister Juli Fernández, visited the site where the technical breakdown occurred, a point just north of the train station. The delegation saw the works being carried out by Adif, the company that manages the rail infrastructure, to remove the damaged material and replace it.

"This incident happened a week ago, and it leads to chaos in the Rodalies system," the president criticized. 

Incidents like this make people "feel like second-class citizens," Aragonès said, adding that these types of breakdowns are the result of political decisions: "For decades there's been a lack of investment [in the rail network], for decades it hasn't been a priority for Spanish governments neither past nor present."

He also took a swipe at Spain's transport minister, Raquel Sánchez, for not having visited the site, "when she has it right next to her house." Sánchez was formerly the mayor of Gavà before taking up the role in the Spanish cabinet. 

Spain retorts

Speaking in a press conference later on Monday, Sánchez said that Aragonès' words were part of an "electoral campaign" and added that the Catalan president would rather "use the incident" as a manner of deflecting from issues his administration is responsible for, citing the "chaos" seen during the civil service entrance examinations.

She assured that the Spanish executive "is working to solve and improve the railway network whether or not there are electoral campaigns underway."

The Socialist minister pointed out that the Spanish government is "investing like never before" in the Rodalies network, and admitted that the system had previously been underfunded under past administrations. 

Sánchez also apologized to the affected commuters.