The Catalan president, Pere Aragonès, has once again stated that the serious rail system failure on the R2 South line out of Barcelona is a consequence of the lack of investment by successive Spanish governments and, for this reason, he reiterated the need to transfer the Rodalies commuter service to the Generalitat of Catalonia. "There has been a lack of investment for decades. It has not been a political priority of Spanish governments, neither of the past nor of the present," Aragonès complained this Monday during a visit to the station at Gavà, just out of Barcelona, which was ground zero for the signal box fire incident that has crippled a commuter line used by tens of thousands of passengers every day. The president also demanded that "the investment made in other territories should be made here" and that this economic injection "be made now" because, according to Aragonès, the current situation "is a consequence of the lack of investment and the lack of political decisions to allocate the necessary resources to the maintenance and investment of the Rodalies system".
The president travelled by car to Gavà station, where this serious incident originated, and he did so accompanied by his Catalan territorial minister, Juli Fernàndez, and also by the maintenance head for the rail infrastructure owner Adif, Ángel Contreras. Thus, Aragonès was able to see the work that Adif is doing to remove the damaged material, analyze it and replace it so that, as soon as possible, the current service level of less than 50% of normal can be boosted again. In a media appearance, Aragonès was critical of the Spanish transport minister, Raquel Sánchez, who is, in fact, the mayor of the municipality where the signal box blaze took place before she was called to take a position in the Spanish government. The Catalan president noted that the transport minister had not paid a visit to the accident location "when it is right here next to her home".
"This incident took place a week ago, and it means chaos in the Rodalies system that happens one day, yes, and the next day, as well", said Aragonès, who added that these anomalies make people from all over Catalonia "feel treated like second-class citizens". He thus criticized the Spanish government's "lack of investment" and once again underlined the need for the Generalitat government he leads to take over the management of the commuter service. "We champion the call that is being made in Catalonia to take over all responsibilities for the rail sector; we are convinced that no matter how well or badly the management is done from here, it will be better than how it is now", he argued.
In fact, on Sunday, Aragonès had already put on the table a call to "articulate a country alliance, of the institutions, the municipal world, the socio-economic agents and organized civil society" to lead a united call for the transfer of Rodalies to Catalan control. In an article in the newspaper Ara, the president asserted that the negligence is the responsibility of "all the holders of the Spanish works and development portfolio, whatever their party colours" and, assuming that the Spanish executive does not intend to change this situation he made a call for all to "back investments and transfer of the Rodalies, decisively and with a united voice".