Thousands of People Affected by local train delays in Barcelona

A landslide in a railway tunnel in Barcelona caused by work on the AVE high speed train link to the Catalan capital has resulted in many local trains being cancelled. To replace the local train service RENFE is offering a bus service instead. However, although things appeared to be running smoothly first thing this morning as the day has progressed transport chaos seems to have prevailed. Around 160,000 passengers have been affected.

Many buses are not running on time and some users have complained that the bus drivers, many of whom are not from Barcelona, are not familiar with the bus routes. Another complaint by passengers is that they still have to pay the same ticket prices as a train journey although RENFE is offering a less efficient service.

There have also been problems on the roads in and around Barcelona. It has been estimated that there are at least 10% more vehicles on the road than usual.

Since first thing this morning around 220 buses have replaced the train routes that have had to be cancelled which has further increased the volume of traffic adding to the travel chaos. The B204 in Viladecans, the B210 in Gavá, the C31 and the C32 have all been affected by long traffic jams today although traffic circulation hasn’t collapsed entirely.

Passengers on long distance train journeys have also been affected by train cancellations. Trains to Valencia have been replaced by a bus service that takes them as far as Tarragona where they can then catch the Euromet train to Valencia. So far this service is experiencing delays of up to 25 minutes.

The most optimistic forecasts estimate that delays and cancellations to train services will last at least a week on the El Prat-Sants line although on the rest of the lines cancellations and delays could last up to one month.