Services across Catalonia’s Rodalies commuter rail network have been suspended after a train derailed outside Barcelona, killing the driver and injuring dozens, just two days after the fatal high-speed collision near Adamuz in southern Spain.
A Rodalies commuter train crashed on Tuesday evening between Gelida and Sant Sadurní d’Anoia, around 35 km west of Barcelona, after colliding with a retaining wall that fell onto the track during severe storms. The driver was killed and more than 30 passengers were injured, prompting authorities to halt the entire Rodalies network while infrastructure checks are carried out.
Catalonia’s Minister of Territory and government spokesperson, Sílvia Paneque, said initial hypotheses “point to a landslide, occurring precisely as the train was passing”, and stressed that services would not restart until safety can be guaranteed. “There is a higher principle: safety,” she said.
Infrastructure manager Adif confirmed on Wednesday morning that all Rodalies-Renfe commuter services in Catalonia would remain suspended “due to the effects of the storm”, adding that there is no forecast for restoring services “until the infrastructure assessment is complete”. The Catalan government said it would not authorise the resumption of commuter operations “until it is certain that all the infrastructure is ready”, and scheduled a safety committee meeting for 09:30 CET to review inspection findings.
Hundreds of thousands stranded
The shutdown left hundreds of passengers seeking alternatives at Barcelona-Sants station on Wednesday morning, with staff unable to give a clear restoration timeline pending authorisation. High-speed services at Sants were operating normally, with railway staff pointing out that long-distance and commuter services use different tracks and that the disruption is limited to the Catalan commuter network.
Adif also reported a second derailment on the Barcelona commuter network on Tuesday. A train running between Blanes and Maçanet-Massanes, north-east of Barcelona, was affected after “the axle was struck by a rock dislodged by the storm”, the infrastructure manager said. No injuries were reported in that incident, but services on the route were suspended.
Days after Spain’s worst rail disasters a decade
The Catalonia crashes come just two days after one of Spain’s worst rail disasters in over a decade, when two high-speed trains collided near Adamuz, in Andalusia. At least 42 people have been confirmed dead in that accident, and rescue and investigation work continued on Wednesday.
Transport Minister Óscar Puente said the official lists of missing and recovered victims were close to being reconciled. “It appears the list of missing persons and bodies found differs by one person,” he said.
Spanish rail unions have also pushed back on claims circulating in parts of the Spanish media about pre-existing track “vibrations” being linked to the Adamuz derailment. The drivers’ union Semaf said a request made last August to reduce speed because of vibrations related to a different part of the network, not the stretch of track where the derailment occurred. Union UGT warned that some reporting was “trying to create an atmosphere of insecurity and panic that is simply not true.”
In parallel, Adif said it has eased emergency speed restrictions introduced after the Adamuz crash on the Madrid–Barcelona high-speed corridor. The infrastructure manager lifted the temporary 160 km/h speed limit imposed on Tuesday afternoon on the section between Mejorada del Campo (Madrid) and Alhama de Aragón (Zaragoza), leaving restrictions only at four specific points at 230 km/h. The rest of the 667-km route remains at 300 km/h. Adif said the limit had been introduced after drivers reported “potholes” and would be reviewed again during the next night maintenance window.