Disruptions after 300 mm rainfall in two days in southern Catalonia

Several public transport disruptions and road cuts were the result of a new round of torrential rainfalls in Catalonia on Friday night.

The downpour was especially remarkable in the southern part of the country, in the Ebre river region, with figures of up to 312 mm in two days in the Ports National Park and 265 mm in Alcanar, the bordering town with Castelló region, where the rains have been also very intense.

Indeed the train station in Vinaròs, just on the Castelló side of the border, was flooded on Friday evening, which disrupted the train lines between Valencia and Barcelona.

Up to 12 hours stuck on a train

Some 300 passengers of one of the trains affected by this disruption covering the Barcelona-Valencia route were stuck for between 8 and 12 hours on the carriages in l'Aldea.

According to Renfe, Spain's public operator, they were halted at around 6pm and they could not be taken out of the train because the village's roundabout was also flooded and vehicles could not access the place where the train was stuck.

At around 2.40am the passengers were given the possibility of going back to Barcelona by train, then taking a high-speed AVE train to Madrid and from there, getting on another AVE towards Valencia.

Half of them took this route, whereas the rest waited for the tracks to be cleared and at 5am they continued the journey southwards to Valencia on the same train.

Road cuts

On Saturday morning, four roads in southern Catalonia were still cut, including the C-12 between Amposta and Tarragona, and other minor roads TP-3311, TV-3421 and T-331.

At around noon local time, C-12 and TP-3311 roads were still partially cut. 

This October has been especially rainy in Catalonia  and also Valencia and the Balearic islands, with even major damages and casualties.