Rodalies's railway circulation will recover on Monday three key sections in Catalonia. The R4 between Terrassa and Manresa, the R3 between Ripoll and Ribes de Freser, and the R15 between Reus and Móra la Nova will be operational again, in a new step to normalize the service after months of incidents derived from the crisis opened by the Gelida accident.
With this reopening, the shuttle bus that until now covered the route between Terrassa and Manresa will also disappear, a provisional solution enabled while the disruptions on the line lasted.
The paid service will return on May 9
The gratuity on Rodalies will be maintained until Friday, May 8. Starting Saturday the 9th, the service will once again be paid. This exceptional measure has been in effect during these months in response to the deterioration of the railway service after the Gelida accident.
"Starting next week, the level of rail service will be 96% compared to what we had in January" - Sílvia Paneque, Minister of Territory, Housing and Ecological Transition
The councilor Sílvia Paneque and the Secretary of State for Transport, José Antonio Santano, confirmed this Friday the calendar of reopenings and the end of the gratuity during a visit to the works of the Rubí railway tunnel executed by Adif.
Emergency Works and Speed Limits
The investment allocated to emergency actions amounts to 186 million euros, with interventions carried out by Adif and Renfe at different points on the network. Within that package, 65 trenches and slopes have already been stabilized out of the 90 areas detected needing action.
These works will allow the removal of some temporary speed limitations that remained in force on several sections, one of the elements that has most conditioned the reliability of travel times in recent months.
Paneque maintained that the Rodalies service is not yet at its point of excellence, although he defended that the contingency plan was designed to improve the network and recalled that 690 points have been inspected. He also announced that alternative transport plans will continue to be activated wherever pending improvements continue.
The Rubí tunnel remains under control
In parallel, the R8 tunnel as it passes through Rubí has already been open since this Wednesday for freight on a single track. The forecast is that the second track will come into service during the month of June to restore passenger traffic.
The infrastructure remains permanently monitored and, as was conveyed during the visit, it is one of the tunnels with the highest level of control in the State, with 30 sensors installed.
Santano defended that the confidence of users in Rodalies has been recovered and placed passenger traffic at 90%, at levels close to those recorded in January, before the Gelida accident. With the reopening of the three sections scheduled for Monday, the Government considers a significant part of the most critical phase to be overcome, although it maintains support measures where the network is still under construction.