The state of the railway infrastructure in Catalonia is far from normalizing six months after the accident in Gelida. According to Adif's latest weekly limitations document, there are 183 sections with reduced speed, affecting 163 km of track. This figure is considerably higher than that recorded before the incident, when limitations affected about ninety points.
The accident, caused by a retaining wall collapsing onto the R4 line due to heavy rains, resulted in the death of a trainee driver and dozens of injuries. As a precautionary measure, train circulation on the entire Rodalies network was temporarily suspended for infrastructure inspection. Some lines experienced prolonged interruptions, disrupting the mobility of thousands of users.
In the weeks following the accident, the operator progressively increased the number of sections with speed limitations to minimize risks. Drivers, demanding higher safety standards, exerted pressure with a strike called between February 9th and 11th. The peak was reached in early March, with 225 affected sections and 180 km of track, a figure that has been gradually reduced thanks to maintenance work.
Currently, over sixty sections have speed reductions down to 30 km/h, and another fifteen require trains to travel between 10 and 20 km/h. Fifty other sections have limits of 50 km/h, and thirty more at 60 km/h. The state-wide Weekly Speed Limitations Document details these issues and their causes.
45% of the sections with speed limits are concentrated in the Barcelona province, with 83 affected railway track sections. Although this number is about twenty less than at the March peak, it is still ten more than before the Gelida accident.
