Extra bus services to be offered while commuter rail service is disrupted south of Barcelona

Following the "serious" incident at the Gavà station which has severely disrupted services to the Rodalies R2 commuter train line earlier this week, the Catalan government has announced it will provide extra bus services to connect cities south of Barcelona with the Catalan capital. 

The reinforced bus lines will be in place until the incident is resolved, which Spain's transport ministry calculates could take "three to four weeks." 

Catalonia's department of territory has opened a file to look into which alternative services need to be offered and has indicated that it will bill Renfe, the railway company managing the Rodalies R2 line, for the bus services. 

Three additional buses from Vilanova i la Geltrú to Barcelona are in operation from Wednesday, starting at 7.30 in the morning and stopping by Sitges.

The same line will be in operation from 4 pm to cover the midday and afternoon returns and will be activated on demand when a lack of capacity is detected on the express bus lines that currently cover the journeys between Garraf and Barcelona, mainly affected by the breakdown.

Demand will be monitored to detect other possible incidents outside peak hours and to be able to put more vehicles there if necessary.

Commuters have long complained about disruptions to the Rodalies services and on Tuesday, Catalonia's minister for territory, Juli Fernández, once again took the opportunity to demand the full transfer of control over the Rodalies services from Spain's Renfe to Catalan authorities. 

Renfe organizes bus services from Thursday

From Thursday, Renfe will activate buses every half hour during rush hour on weekdays as an alternative to the service affected by the incident on the R2 South line.

Bus services will be offered in the mornings, between 06.30 and 08.00 am to connect Castelldefels and Barcelona, and in the opposite direction, between 5 and 7 pm to link the Catalan capital, Gavà, and Castelldefels.

For now, the morning service will not include a connection from Gavà, but Renfe say they are working to enable it "in the coming days."

The regional services - R13, R14, R15, R16 and R17 - have one train per hour each way with stops at all stations between Sant Vicenç de Calders and Barcelona.

Catalan government calls meeting with Renfe and Adif

The territory minister, Juli Fernández, has announced that the government has called Renfe and Adif to a meeting about the disruptions.

In parliament on Wednesday, Fernández said they want to meet for the groups to "explain what they plan to do to resolve the situation and to know what extraordinary measures they will put in place."

He also complained that the service operators had not offered "any alternative measure" by Wednesday morning, and instead the Generalitat had to do it, and he insisted that "the people want solutions."

Renfe sources have indicated to the Catalan News Agency that they regularly have "many meetings" with the government and that "coordination is absolute." 

Resignation among commuters

The first day after the breakdown of the service saw resignation, anger, and distrust from commuters towards a service they consider deficient.

The station platforms were full at all times throughout the morning on Wednesday, given the time difference between the passage of one train and another.

Despite evaluating alternatives, private transport is almost entirely ruled out by traffic, and the bus is not a possibility for all destinations.

However, travelers also complained that when it's not lightning, as has caused this week's disruption of services, it's another reason, meaning they are used to getting to places late when they have to take the train.

"To get here we have to take a bus, and this time I took it half an hour earlier than usual," explains one user, Marc Pallicé. However, he says that "every week something happens," and that the trains usually run outside their schedule.

Judith Vellet had to do something similar, today she started her day one hour earlier to try to get to work. "It wasn't necessary either, because something always happens, a strike, or the train is late," she complains.

However, she feels mistreated by the rail public transport system: "It's a joke, and those of us who have to use public transport have to put up with this, there's no point in expecting something different from them," she criticizes.

Disruption to services

A train signal box fire at the Adif railway infrastructure management facilities in Gavà, a coastal town not far south of Barcelona, on Monday evening, continues to cause disruptions.

Only one R2 train was running every half an hour between the town of Sant Vicenç de Calders and Estació de França station in Barcelona by Tuesday.

Officials from Spain's transport ministry say the incident is "serious" and that normal service will not return to the R2 South line for "three or four weeks."

Xavier Flores, secretary general of infrastructure in Spain's ministry of transport, told reporters in Barcelona that it is "one of the worst incidents you can have: it leaves you blind in terms of train control and safety."

The improvement to the services will be "progressive," the official said. "If today it was possible to run two trains per direction per hour, for Wednesday the forecast is that the frequency will increase to three trains per direction per hour."

The R13, R14, R15, R16, and R17 lines from Tarragona and the Ebre region in southern Catalonia to Barcelona are also being diverted through the Penedès area, inland from Gavà.