Heat makes metro and Rodalies waits harder

Heat in Barcelona’s metro and Rodalies commuter-rail stations is making journeys harder for passengers, particularly older people and people with certain illnesses who may struggle to wait on exposed or poorly ventilated platforms.

While passengers told the Agència Catalana de Notícies report published by Nació that air conditioning generally makes trains and buses more bearable, they described waiting areas as the main problem. Joan, a metro user, said: “The platform is like death.”

For commuters using Rodalies through Plaça Catalunya, the heat can begin before boarding or immediately after leaving a train. One regular passenger said she started sweating shortly after getting off a service and called for air conditioning or fans in stations.

Older passengers change travel times

Juana, who uses both the metro and bus, said the hottest hours leave her feeling fatigued and short of breath. She now tries to travel only in the morning and evening.

“I arrange it that way, because at two or three o’clock it is impossible to go out into the street.”

Passengers who can change their journeys may find morning or evening travel more manageable than the middle of the day, according to the accounts gathered by ACN. Others said they use hand fans or small electric fans while waiting.

PTP calls heat an accessibility issue

Adrià Ramírez, vice-president of the Associació per a la Promoció del Transport Públic (PTP), a public-transport advocacy group, said public transport remains an important tool for addressing the climate emergency but must adapt to the hotter conditions created by climate change.

“Temperature has stopped being a matter of comfort and has become almost a matter of accessibility.”

Ramírez said that beyond certain temperature thresholds, older people and people with some medical conditions cannot make journeys they had planned. He has also described timetable reliability as Rodalies’ most serious problem, saying passengers cannot organise their lives around trains when they do not know whether, or when, a service will run.

Rodalies passengers at Plaça Catalunya who face prolonged waits can check service information before travelling and, where their schedules allow, avoid the hottest part of the day.

Reported by Arturo Puente, radiocapital.cat, metropoliabierta.elespanol.com, Natàlia Vila, naciodigital.cat.