Ten user platforms for trains in Catalonia have issued a joint statement calling for a 'reformulation' of how they interact with service managers. The aim is for these encounters to be 'productive for everyone,' with 'less frequency,' a schedule 'to be respected,' and the 'presence and interest' of the summoned officials.
The statement is signed by associations such as Dignitat a les Vies, Salvem la R2 Nord, Perquè no ens fotin el tren, Trens Dignes Ebre-Priorat, the Plataforma d’usuaris l’R8 Existeix, Propera parada: Valls, Defensem el tren de l’Empordà, the Plataforma d’usuaris i usuàries del Transport Públic del Baix Llobregat, Usuaris Avant Catalunya Proximitat, and the Associació per a la Promoció del Transport Públic (PTP).
Following the accident in Gelida on January 20th, the platforms had been holding weekly meetings with minister Sílvia Paneque, secretary Manel Nadal, and departmental technicians to report network problems. However, they claim this dialogue dynamic with the Generalitat and Rodalies Catalunya has 'severely degraded' recently, due to 'constant changes in schedules and dates,' regular delays, or even 'absences of the convened officials.'
'It's not about listening to the same complaints, the same delays, the same incidents, and the same claims over and over again. The feeling we have is clear: the Government does not understand the reality or the magnitude of the problem,' state the user representatives, who consider the meetings to have become 'inefficient.'
'We have repeatedly heard announcements of improvements, action plans, and commitments that often do not translate into perceptible results for users,' they argue. Although the platforms acknowledge that the current Government has inherited a 'very complicated situation' resulting from decades of underinvestment, they point out that 'it cannot be that we continue with such large deficits as providing reliable information to users about incidents and alternatives.'
The representatives of the user platforms maintain that these meetings could be a 'magnificent tool for diagnosing the main deficits and solving the service as quickly as possible.'
