of Rodalies in Catalonia. The plan, which aspires to be implemented immediately and urgently, contemplates acting on security to avoid vandalism; in improving the stations with maintenance and cleaning; increase the quality of the information that users receive and apply a system of indicators to evaluate the implementation of the plan. “These are short-term investments and others are structural. We have suffered historic disinvestment and we seek to reverse it. If we ask for patience, we have to offer an improvement,” stated the Territori advisor, Sílvia Paneque, who has pointed out the Government’s total commitment in this chapter and in offering users quality and going beyond asking for patience.
The document provides for 39 specific measures broken down into three sections. The main investment of 43 million with 16 actions will be used to improve the carriages and stations; Secondly, 25 million will be applied to security with 14 measures and, finally, the information received by users will be improved so that it is in real time with nine measurements and an expenditure of 8 million euros. We have specificity in the budget and in time,” said Raül Blanco, president of RENFE who presented the plan together with Paneque in the Department of Territory. The investment will not be affected by the lack of budgets of both the Generals and the Generalitat.
The improvement program has been announced just when train circulation between Sants and Gavà stations has been suspended this Thursday due to access works to the The cut will last until the 4th and affects lines R2, R2 South and R2 North and, among others, to users who want to access the airport. RENFE has enabled an alternative service to reschedule 68 buses. The incident is one more of the multiple alterations in the service that users suffer to now alleviate this historical disinvestment. The most relevant so far is that the affected Blanco has guaranteed that the works are going according to the planned schedule and that they expect them to be ready on March 3.
The urgent action plan in its main package foresees improvements such as the renewal of canopies, the paving of platforms, the painting of lobbies and facades, the renewal of street furniture or the improvement of station accesses, including underpasses. RENFE will increase 50% of the staff dedicated to graffiti cleaning. In security, the company has surveillance cameras in 89 of the 107 stations it manages and its goal is to equip the remaining ones with these means by 2025. Security will also be increased with more security guards and drones. The plan foresees that the Interior will create a specific Mossos d’Esquadra team to increase the security of the stations and prevent, among other things, vandalism such as copper theft. ADIF will surround 29 conflictive points with fencing. The information will be enhanced with new public address systems; 270 digital signage monitors will be installed in 80 and new monitors in another 50 in addition to another 20 self-sale machines for medium-distance tickets.
RENFE and the Government have announced the plan just when the transfer of the service is about to be put on track. The document that allowed Salvador Illa to become president in August also included closing the agreement this January. Paneque has assured that his ministry has already prepared the document and that he is now waiting to meet with the parliamentary groups, alluding to ERC. “But we will not go beyond January,” he assured, hinting that the signing will be in a few days.
