All Rodalies rail lines return to normal after a month of disruption
Operations resumed on most affected R3, R4, R7 and R12 lines following copper theft on May 12
All trains of the Rodalies commuter rail network returned to normal on Monday after more than a month of severe disruption due to a copper theft.
The most affected lines, R3, R4, R7 and R12, will return to their normal frequencies and routes after tests on the lines over the weekend were successful.
The announcement comes a month after a copper theft on May 12 caused widespread disruptions on all lines of the network.
Since then, trains on these lines have been running with route or frequency restrictions, and some have been canceled altogether.
In the central Catalan city of Vic, where passengers were able to return to the R3 line, one of the worst affected, there was no sign of the usual workday bustle.
"People don't know that there are trains again," says Montse Ayats, from the "Perquè no ens fotin el tren" platform, complaining about the "information deficit" of Renfe and Adif.
Other users, like Carme, complained that even with the normal service, the frequency is very slow: "We cannot wait 2 hours for an 8-minute train ride."
At the Montcada Bifurcació station, where the copper theft took place, commuters were happy to have trains running again.
"We are happy to be able to use the line again, but we have lost a whole month. It is a shame that we have so many difficulties despite all the infrastructure that is in place," Daniel said.
Copper theft on May 12
The copper theft, which took place at the Montcada Bifurcació station in Barcelona, caused an overvoltage in the electrification system, leading to several fires that caused a widespread collapse of the system.
The repair work was initially estimated to take two months and cost €15 million. However, normal service has beenb restored in nearly half the time.
The copper theft coincided with the Catalan elections on May 12, causing such widespread disruption that politicians asked the electoral board to extend voting hours.
The disruption led to days of mutual accusations between the Spanish government, the state-owned rail operator Adif, and the Catalan police, the Mossos d'Esquadra, over the protection of the tracks.
Óscar Puente even suggested that "sabotage" could not be ruled out.
Most copper thefts on Spanish government rail lines
Catalonia is the region in Spain with the highest number of copper thefts on railway lines. In the first quarter of the year, 46 incidents were recorded, 32 of them in Barcelona alone.
Most of the copper thefts occur on the Rodalies lines. Last year, 240 copper thefts occurred on the Rodalies lines, while 16 occurred on FGC lines.
Although the total number of kilometers of Rodalies lines is much greater than that of FGC, the Spanish state-owned lines have 184 incidents per 1,000 kilometers, while the Catalan lines have 29 incidents per 1,000 kilometers.