Barcelona was hit by rail disruption after Adif and the Generalitat blamed Siemens for two failures at the Rodalies control centre in Estació de França. The incidents caused delays across Catalonia and affected thousands of passengers.
The first failure happened at about 12.30, when an operating system update at Adif’s control centre blocked the centralised traffic control system. That stopped all Rodalies and regional train lines in Catalonia for around 20 minutes. A second failure followed at about 15.30 and lasted just over 10 minutes. Services were then restored gradually, which left delays running for several hours.
The disruption came on a difficult day for mobility in Catalonia, as it coincided with a papal visit. Adif said the problem was not the first time Siemens had failed in the management of the control centre, and described the situation as unjustified, inadmissible, unassumable and absolutely intolerable. The company said it will begin legal action against Siemens. Adif’s official website has also said it had already opened an investigation after similar incidents on 26 January, when the system failed twice in one morning.
Sílvia Paneque, Catalan Minister for Territory and government spokesperson, was told about the first incident during a press conference. She initially linked the issue to the planned unification of Adif’s circulation regulation centre and Renfe’s operational management centre, a project still in the design phase. After the second failure and Adif’s statement, the Generalitat also moved to seek accountability. The government said Rodalies de Catalunya has asked its legal services to consider all options for claiming against Siemens.
Siemens said the latest incident was due to corrective maintenance work. Industry sources questioned whether changes would have been made without Adif’s knowledge. Sources within Adif had previously said, less than two months ago, that no better option than the current Siemens system existed on the market. The same system is also used by Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat, the Barcelona Metro and other European operators, reportedly without similar problems.
Rodalies de Catalunya is 51% owned by Renfe and 49% by the Generalitat, but it currently has no operational control over the rail service. Its only employee, six months after it was formed, is its CEO, Òscar Playà. That leaves open which legal team will handle any claim, the Catalan administration’s or the state operator’s. For more Barcelona transport updates, see our Community coverage and Sport updates.
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Originally published by La Vanguardia Barcelona. Read original article.
