Just one third of budget investments in Catalonia's railway network carried out

Between 2015 and 2022, only around one third of budgeted investments in railway companies in Catalonia were carried out. 

According to budget and spending data from Spain's Ministry of Finance between these years, which is all of the data made public, investments worth €6.194 billion were projected in Renfe, Adif and Adif-Alta Velocitat in Catalonia, while just €2.171 billion were spent.

This means that only 35.1% of the total budget was spent, below the Spanish average of 41%. The Madrid region had 45.8% of its budgeted investments carried out. 

The amounts spent have varied over the years, since although in 2021 only around 20% of planned investments were made, a figure that dropped to around 10% the following year, compliance was much higher in 2017. Coinciding with the independence push, Spanish railway companies executed 78.5% of the €396 million budgeted that year.

In absolute numbers, the €6.194 billion planned for Catalonia was by far the highest figure among all the autonomous communities, but the €2.171 billion spent was less than the €2.498 executed in the region of Castile and León.

Renfe-Rodalies

Considering Renfe alone, the operator of the Rodalies commuter rail service that has been under fire for disruptions in recent weeks, 42.2% of planned spending was carried out in the period analyzed. This is ten points below the Spanish average and significantly lower than the Madrid region (67.8%).

The investments planned in Catalonia were the most in Spain, but in the end even the Madrid region surpassed Catalonia in real spending, with €724 million compared to €501 million.

Andalusia (55.7%), the Valencian Region (51.7%) and the Basque Country (66.3%) also had a higher degree of compliance.

Pedro Sánchez acknowledges "difficulties"

Spain's PM Pedro Sánchez said that he "empathizes" with Rodalies commuter train users who face network "difficulties," during a speech in Congress on Wednesday.

Sánchez highlighted that his government has increased investment on the public transport in Catalonia and considered it is "not fair" to compare the investment made to Rodalies than the one made to the high-speed network.

He said so in response to pro-independence Esquerra Republicana MP Gabriel Rufián who said that many users "enter hell" when they start their Rodalies commute. Meanwhile, Rufián attacked the other pro-independence Junts party for "attacking" ERC for negotiating the Rodalies transfer with the Socialists, while they "appoint some of their party friends to Renfe's managing board."

Transport minister Óscar Puente said that he wanted to apologize to Rodalies users, but "incidents occurred are not due to the lack of investment, but the contrary." He told MPs that those disruptions are due to "vandalism."

"Over half of vandalism attacks in Spain, happen near Barcelona," he said.