The rail service recovered a certain degree of normality and user flow in Lleida following recent incidents. Trains on the RL3 and RL4 lines ran quite punctually in the morning, although the service continued to be covered by bus between Cervera and Manresa and between Vinaixa and Reus or Sant Vicenç de Calders.
“"Today I feel emotional because I saw that the train had arrived on time and I will arrive punctually at work."
The first R13 train between Lleida and Barcelona (the 5:39 a.m. service) was suspended due to work at the Juneda station. Renfe reallocated the six passengers traveling to Barcelona and one to Tarragona onto AVE trains. Despite the improvement, users continued to arrive early at the station, such as Maria Martín, who had an exam in Cervera and chose to take the 8 a.m. train to allow for potential delays.
“"It has been absolute chaos and I have been negatively affected by absences from class."
Long-distance High Speed services still accumulated some delays due to speed limitations on certain track sections. The Lleida-Madrid AVE at 9:01 a.m. departed nine minutes late, and the AVE towards Figueres at 9:37 a.m. accumulated more than half an hour of delay. In contrast, the Avant trains at 7:05 a.m. and 8:10 a.m. departed punctually, and the free Avant service at 7:25 a.m. only had a seven-minute delay.
This free reinforcement service continues to gain users. The convoy that left Barcelona at 6:00 a.m. arrived in Lleida with 49 passengers, and the one that left the capital of Segrià at 7:32 a.m. did so with 207 users, reaching an occupancy of 35% of the 581 available seats. Users like Jordi commented that the free trains are a way to try to remedy the service problems and encourage train use.
