The chaos that Rodalies de Catalunya is going through continues adding chapters in an agonizing plot in which the most affected are the users. A report from the Servei Meteorològic de Catalunya (SMC), to which La Vanguardia has had access, now refutes Adif's version that the fire at the Gavà signaling facilities was caused by lightning. The incident caused the complete collapse of the R2 and R2 sud, other Rodalies lines and medium-distance routes. This incident also causes the service to be altered for at least three more weeks, as highlighted by the operator.
The report of the Generalitat body refers to the data of the Xarxa de Detectió de Descàrregues Elèctriques (XDDE) of the SMC. This entity is in charge of detecting, locating, and recording all lightning strikes generated by storms. As shown by the data reflected in the maps, on May 1, the day ADIF indicated that the event occurred, the storms produced lightning from the clouds to the ground in the Vallès Occidental, Maresme and Barcelonès Nord. At no time was there an electric shock in any municipality of Baix Llobregat —the region in which Gavà is located—.
That worker's day there were not as many downloads as on Sunday, April 30. And, despite this, Gavà was not the final objective of any of them either. "The lightning strikes did affect Baix Llobregat," the agency reports, "but the lightning closest to the point of interest (the Gavà train station) fell some 4.5 kilometers away, in the municipality of Prat del Llobregat."
In this way, the SMC denies the veracity of the ADIF version, offered by the Secretary General of Infrastructures of the Government of Spain, Xavier Flores. "Taking into account the precision in the location of the system, it is ruled out that it would have hit its point of interest," he laments.
At the moment, Adif has not offered a response to the requirements of La Vanguardia to assess the SMC report.
After the chaos suffered since last Tuesday, with cancellations and delays of more than two hours, Adif pointed out that normality on the Vilanova line would be altered for at least three weeks.
With the electronic interlock broken, all trains passing through that section must do so the old-fashioned way, using the telephone interlock system, which significantly reduces the number of trips on the tracks to ensure safety. Throughout this Tuesday there were a maximum of two trains per hour and direction on the R2 line, well below the six that usually occurs at rush hour.
Already on Wednesday, the frequency has been three trains per direction and hour instead of the two yesterday. This is about half the usual service, with one train every twenty minutes on average. In this way, Adif intends to gradually recover normality.
