Morning Rodalies commuter trains serving towns beyond Barcelona are becoming increasingly crowded as people move out of the city in search of cheaper housing while continuing to travel in for work and other daily commitments, drivers and passenger groups have told El Món.

For commuters from Cardedeu, Granollers, Mataró, Calella and Barberà del Vallès, the effect is fewer seats at busy times and a network with less room to recover after a breakdown. Rail staff say the pressure is also affecting the reliability of services entering Barcelona, where Rodalies and regional trains share limited routes.

Hèctor Pujols, a train driver and representative of the CCOO trade union, told El Món that passenger growth at outer metropolitan stations was linked to rising housing prices in the capital. “People cannot live where they grew up, but they still have their jobs and connections there,” he said.

Three rail tunnels limit services into Barcelona

Martí Fuentes, a delegate of the Alferro railway workers' union, said the infrastructure could not take more trains. He said operators try to run as many services as the network can hold, leaving little spare capacity to contain disruption when equipment fails.

According to Fuentes, Barcelona has three rail tunnels, one used by high-speed services and the others shared by Rodalies and regional trains. He said additional tracks, rather than simply more trains, would be needed to make operations more flexible.

Renfe has bought 100 new trains for its Catalonia fleet, according to the report. The six-car trains will be 100 metres long, with four single-deck carriages and two double-deck carriages in the middle. Renfe's stated target is 600,000 daily users in Catalonia, 50% more than at present.

  • Current trains cited by Alferro are about 75 metres long.
  • The new trains would add 25 metres of length and include double-deck carriages.
  • Alferro estimates that total network capacity would increase by 10% to 15%.

Fuentes said the longer trains would bring some extra space but would not meet the expected increase in demand without more frequent services. Pujols described them as a more economically viable option than building a fourth rail tunnel into Barcelona.

Cardedeu and Bellaterra users organise

Passenger campaigns have formed in several parts of the Rodalies network. El Món identifies nine platforms across five geographical areas, including Plataforma pel Transport Públic, Dignitat a les Vies, Salvem R2 Nord and R8 Existeix.

Salvem R2 Nord was established after a users' meeting in Cardedeu, in Vallès Oriental, two years ago. The town has gained 9,000 residents in a decade, while the wider county's population has risen from about 293,000 in the late 1990s to more than 430,000, the report says.

Its spokesperson, Álvaro Porro, said commuters travelling towards Barcelona could generally board comfortably at Cardedeu but often could not find seats after Granollers. On afternoon return journeys, he said, passengers could struggle to find a seat from Passeig de Gràcia onwards.

Students using the R8, which links the two Vallès counties with the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona campus in Bellaterra, have begun a petition for the university's ombudsman. They report one train an hour for Vallès students, short trains and timetables that do not fit class start and finish times.

R8 students seeking to raise a service complaint can do so through the petition being prepared for the UAB ombudsman. Commuters on the R2 Nord can follow Salvem R2 Nord, the Cardedeu-based users' group named in the report, for its local campaign activity.

Reported by elmon.cat.