Half century trains that aggravate the crisis of Rodalies de Catiluña | News from Catalonia

THE The Minister of the Territory, Sílvia Paneque, revealed on March 25 – in the monograph of Rodalies in Parliament – that 24% of the trains assigned for circulation in Catalonia is not operational. Renfe has in its Catalan railway network of 271 trains, therefore, according to Paneque, more than 65 do not work, being one of the causes of the collapse of the Catalan railway system. There is a fact that can explain that phenomenon: the antiquity of the convoys. There are 14 units – especially in regional services – who have satisfied or are about to do it, the half century of life. Next year, after a long time, the new trains will start circulating, just outside the Alstom factory of Santa Perpètu de Mogoda. From next January to 2030, 110 new acquisition trains will be arrived with which you will try to improve a network used 400,000 users.

The reasonable figure of inoperative trains, according to the technicians, should vary between 10% and 15% of the total. The complaint of Paneque regrets that 24% were out at the end of March did not only digest well to Renfe. The president of the company, Álvaro Fernández Heredia, published on April 6th –12 days after the report of the Minister of the Territories– A long thread on the X network that denies Paneque’s data. “No, one in four Rodalies trains is not out of four. This is false, no matter how much it repeats itself,” he warned. Fernández admitted that between 5% and 15% of the trains of any network remains inoperant to perform maintenance, clean or reserve them to participate in accidents. In 2024 this percentage of maintenance trains, reserve or cleaning in Rodalies was 18.67%. The president of the company admitted that the percentage was raised and that it was due to several factors: 3% of trains were not available in Catalonia because they were cleaning, mainly because of the graffiti. Fernández argues that in Catalonia there is more vandalism than in other communities and that many times the strength of graffiti to “declare useless” the train for the service. The president of Renfe also assumed that “the average age of the fleet is high and that gives rise to greater immobilizations”. Fernández said that 5.5% of trains that were not available were because many years have accumulated and should be reviewed.

Are Rodalies trains obsolete? Joan Carles Salmerón, director of the Terus Transport Studies Center, admits that several trains are “very old”. Until 2009, the Renfe railway services in Catalonia have been divided between the vicinity and regional (media distance). In 2009 the two services were unified under Rodalies’ nomenclature. “Today we have 271 trains of nine different models,” says Salmerón. From the 447 series there are 129 trains distributed between the lines of the old and regional vicinity. Most of these trains are from 1993 and many will remain active with the arrival of new vehicles next year. From the 448 series, produced in 1987, there are 18 trains that perform services at medium distance. Starting from 1990, the 12 two -storey trains of the 451 series were built and in 1993 the dozens of trains – even two floors – of the 450 series. The news is the 19 trains of 449 – manufactured in 2008 – which also make regional courses. In 2003, the eight trains of the 463 Series were put into operation, the 464 and 58 convoys of the 465 circulating in the R1, R2, R3 and R4 lines. But the deans of trains in operation in Catalonia are the 14 convoys of the 470 series produced since 1974 that cover the R11 route between Barcelona and Portbou and the R13 between the França and Lleida station. “The useful life of trains is usually 30 years old, as long as they have made good maintenance. Something that has not always happened to ours,” says Salmerón.

The Generalitat and the Ministry of Transport works to expand and create seminars that allow the arrival of 110 new trains. In these seminars, moreover, the cleaning of trains and the protection of convoys will be fundamental to avoid graffiti and try to finish 3% of the immobilized mobile park due to this activity. In addition, the Generalitat hopes that at least 54 of these new trains will serve to expand the park and therefore increase the passing frequencies. From next year, 72 new trains will enter service that will cover R1, R2, R3 and R4 and that Alstom is building. Everyone will have a capacity of 900 people and can circulate up to 140 kilometers per hour. The company’s CAF is also building 24 trains that will replace the oldest of regional lines. These trains will be added convoys until they reach 2028 and 2030 to 110. Another 14 new trains are also scheduled for the route to the airport that will manage the Railways of the Generalitat and 14 other convoys, these seconds and with a variable width, which will be assigned to the Tortosa area.

“Thanks to these new trains, the service will be improved, even if not entirely. Rodalies’ big problem was the lack of investments. A high percentage of defects has their origin in the streets and chains, the infrastructures dependent on Adif, another very high percentage is due to vandalism and final infrastructures and, therefore, the service will be advanced”, says Salmerón.

What do Renfe drivers think of the mobile material they work with? Francisco Cárdenas is a driver in Catalonia and one of the representatives of Ugt. It is acute: “Trains are wrong. Maintenance is bad because they are subcontracting for foreign companies and it is here that they fail”. Rafa Escudero is an auditor and belongs to the Catalonia railway Union: “In the seminars the stay of the trains is prolonged because there are neither staff nor spare parts. The seminars are not only insufficient, but they lack all this. Miguel Huélam, is also fundamental for the outsourcing of the service, although he admits that, despite the age of trains” they have a lot of rents ” to infinance.

The Generalitat hopes that with the improvement of trains, work in stations, infrastructures, information and new citizenship of management begins to notice improvements in the Rodalies service within a few months.