The Department of Territory of the Generalitat announced this Thursday a letter addressed to the Secretary of State for Transport, José Antonio Santano, where it has requested the Ministry of Transport access to all the facilities managed by Adif to tender an “exhaustive audit” of Rodalies . This is a measure included in the transfer of powers of the railway service that the Generalitat will implement to analyze the state of the infrastructure and detect elements that do not have adequate security measures.
This Thursday there were new incidents in Rodalies. According to Renfe sources, Europa Press, A vandalized train has not been able to be used for four days as it cannot access the cleaning point at the Montcada Bifurcació station (Barcelona) due to the damage caused by the copper theft last Sunday. The road capacity restrictions caused by the incident make it difficult for units to pass from L’Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona), where the convoy is located, to Montcada i Reixach (Barcelona).
It is the fifth consecutive day that the Catalan railway service suffers problems of disablement, travel delays or cancellation due to the theft carried out on the day of the elections to the Parliament of Catalonia. Repairing all the damage will take at least two months, although there is no set date for the normalization of the service. It is the community with the most acts of vandalism in Spain since 2019 (more than 50%), followed by Madrid (11.4%) and Tarragona (10%). Renfe assures that these crimes, such as that of the disabled train this Thursday, have cost the Catalans 10 million euros.
The Catalan railway service has been the subject of dispute in recent days between the Spanish Government and the Generalitat. The Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, exempted Renfe and Adif from responsibility for the incidents on Monday, while pointing to the work of the Mossos d’Esquadra as one of the causes of the repeated copper thefts. “If the Mossos have no responsibility, Adif and Renfe even less so. They are the victims […] of uncivil people or something worse,” the minister said in an appearance. The next day, the Generalitat defended the work of the police force in security tasks and prevention of theft of electrical wiring. “It is irresponsible to accuse the police of inaction. How can you say that the mossos don’t they investigate? “We have carried out three physical inspections in the area of the incidents between Sunday and Monday and reviewed all the cameras,” said the director of the mossosPere Ferrer, who claimed from the Ministry of Transport around 3.6 billion euros of investments that have not been made since 2010 in Catalan trains.
The last encounter with the minister was on Tuesday in the Senate, where Josep Lluís Cleries, a member of Junts, blamed Puente for monitoring the damage to the Rodalies trains as part of his powers. “The lack of assumption of responsibility is worrying. You are the ones who have to look after the tracks and stations to guarantee an efficient transportation service,” said Cleries, who insisted that disinvestment helps vandalism proliferate. The Minister of Transport stressed that Renfe and Adif are “the victims” and “not the aggressors” in the thefts that “unfortunately occur with excessive frequency in Catalonia.” And he added: “Renfe and Adif have invested 1.7 billion euros in the Rodalies service since 2020. We now manage the Rodalies service with the Generalitat until the transfer of powers takes place. What are they going to do when the responsibility falls exclusively on the Government? Will they blame the Spanish Government?”
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