About twenty activists gathered this Thursday at the Passeig de Gràcia Rodalies station in Barcelona to denounce that the future line operated by Ferrocarriles de la Generalitat has been designed “solely” to serve tourists and will cause greater congestion on the commuter lines.
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Several activists from organizations such as Promoción del Transporte Público (PTP), Salvem R2Nord, Dignitat a les víes but also the Federation of Neighborhood Associations of Barcelona (FAVB), CCOO or UGT gathered just before 9:00 a.m. in front of the Passeig de Gràcia Rodalies station and staged a surprise action by going down to the platforms and displaying banners against the future R-Aeroport.
The organizations warned that the railway system suffers from “structural saturation especially in the railway tunnels of Barcelona.” They alert that when the R-Aeroport starts operating, “up to four more trains per direction will be introduced in the Passeig de Gràcia tunnel, which will increase the system’s fragility and make it easier for any incident to affect the entire railway network.”
Álvaro Porro, from the Salvem R2Nord platform, denounced that the Passeig de Gràcia tunnels are a bottleneck in the system: “Every time there is a problem, a domino effect is created throughout the network. The Generalitat wants to create a premium line for tourists that will generate more incidents, more delays, and more overcrowding.” Porro assures that the airport already has connections and it is not necessary to introduce “a new line outside the fare system in the middle of the Rodalies crisis.”
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The protest was carried out peacefully and only at the end of the event did four Renfe guards go down to the platforms. “It is shameful that this (the airport line) is the only railway expansion of Rodalies in recent decades and no new railway connections have been promoted to connect historical service deficits,” the platforms lament. The manifesto denounces that the administrations have allocated 400 million euros to this connection and demand that the Generalitat strengthen the Rodalies network.
Carles García from the Promoción del Transporte Público (PTP) association expressed opposition to the R-Aeroport project and requested a meeting with the Generalitat to transform the R-Aeroport into a project that provides greater service by extending the route through the R2Nord to Granollers or to Maçanet-Massanes. The user platforms did not want to discuss whether the service should be operated by Ferrocarriles de la Generalitat de Cataluña or Renfe.
