Antonio Carmona is well-known among Catalan journalists. For the past few years, he has been the visible face of Rodalies, during a period of political tension in which his service was constantly singled out. He has answered calls from everyone, no matter where they wrote for, or what time it was. With 20 years of hard work in Renfe's communication department, a company where he started working as a railway assistant, he became the director of Rodalies last March, replacing Mayte Castillo.
He arrives at a time of strong investments for the Rodalies service, with the forecast of disbursing more than 6.3 billion euros by 2030 to improve it with the Rodalies Plan, after years of drought and neglect by PP governments. Since its launch in 2020, the plan, coordinated by former Convergent conseller Pere Macias, has awarded more than 3.4 billion euros, with already palpable actions such as the reconfiguration of tracks at Sants station, advances in La Sagrera, where Rodalies trains already pass, the new Sant Andreu station or the recently opened new platforms at Arc de Triomf.
--- How do the first months as director of Rodalies feel?
--- Being on call 24 hours a day remains the same, but in a different way. Now I have greater responsibility for the passengers we transport. When there are incidents, the direct person responsible for passengers suffering a delay or being stopped at a station is the director of Rodalies, so you feel it differently. Luckily, I already knew 99% of the people in the teams, which makes the entire integration easier for what it means to run the daily service and, above all, to focus on the medium and long term. We all know the short term and we are acting, but we have to see what we want to be when we grow up and for that we are also working in a very coordinated way with the Generalitat.
--- What does Rodalies want to be when it grows up?
--- There has been an evident lack of investment from 2012 to 2018, when the new team arrived, which undertook a series of actions that were embodied in a framework, the Rodalies Plan. The investment we are now enjoying in Catalonia is historic, both in terms of infrastructure improvement works, whether for the Mediterranean Corridor, the undergrounding of Sant Feliu de Llobregat and Montcada i Reixac, and the duplication of the R3, as well as accessibility improvement works in different stations and the purchase of new trains. These are a series of actions that were set for the period 2020-2030 and, as Pere Macias said, one thing is to set that framework, but the most important thing is to monitor it, and that is what is making it possible to continue advancing.
--- Now, precisely, work is being done in Roda de Berà to extend the Mediterranean Corridor. How can this benefit Rodalies users?
--- Adif is working in Roda de Berà, but in parallel it is working on the improvement of the stations of Altafulla, Torredembarra, Tarragona and Sant Vicenç de Calders, where all the infrastructure is being renovated. Therefore, in addition to the socioeconomic benefit that an infrastructure like the Mediterranean Corridor brings, to increase freight transport and continue increasing its share compared to road, it also brings indirect improvements for Rodalies because it improves the comfort and reliability of the facilities. Once the works are finished, the entire Rodalies offer can be reprogrammed to be more frequent and have a more real frequency. Another example is the undergrounding of Sant Feliu de Llobregat, which will improve safety, but the infrastructure will also be renovated, so there will be a new station and tracks which, after all, are improvements for Rodalies.
--- Beyond the infrastructure works, the Rodalies Plan also includes new trains.
--- Around 100 new trains will arrive at Rodalies. The first ones may arrive by the end of 2025 or in 2026 and will be progressively incorporated. One part will replace older ones and the other will increase the fleet. This increase will allow us, in the future, for all trains on R1, R2, and R4, the main Rodalies lines, and a large part of R3, to run in double composition, with 200-meter trains. Therefore, with the same frequency, you will already be increasing capacity. A very important work that has been done is that of Arc de Triomf, extending the platforms to 200 meters to be able to accommodate these trains.
--- All these improvements are also accompanied by service cuts and inconveniences for users on an already strained network.
--- We are aware that we have two complex years of works ahead of us, but we also understand that, when these two years pass, with the completion of certain actions and the progressive arrival of new trains, there will be an evident improvement for the traveler. If you improve reliability, you can reprogram services for another type of offer, and if you have more trains, you can provide more seating capacity. These are evident improvements. Why do works sometimes give the impression that there may be more problems? When you have a work, it entails a series of restrictions and stresses the system, so your recovery capacity in the face of any incident is lower. To give a home example, if you do work in the kitchen, you buy a camping stove to get by. If the camping stove fails, you either go to the bar or to your parents' or in-laws' house, but you no longer have that alternative. If you had had the kitchen and the camping stove, and the kitchen fails at a given moment, you have the other option. But now you depend on a single element, and that means that if it fails, the recovery capacity is much lower.
"When there is an incident, the worst thing that can happen to a traveler is the feeling of not being informed. If you don't say anything, the user thinks that no one is thinking about them, and there is always someone who is."--- Is work better now with the new Government led by Salvador Illa (PSC)?
--- In the current government team there is an involvement and a will to improve counting on us. We are working on what we call the Pla Endreça which includes improvements in security, cleanliness, accessibility and information. When there is an incident, the worst thing that can happen to a traveler is the feeling of not being informed. Sometimes you cannot give them the solution we would like, but, if you don't say anything, the user thinks that no one is thinking about them and there is always someone behind who is thinking about the travelers. If we do it, we have to transmit it. And what is the best way to transmit it? Information, information, information. We know that we have points for improvement and what we are going to do is work hand in hand with the Government. The day we had to go to Tarragona to explain the alternative plan for Roda de Berà to the mayors of the area, the Department of Territory asked us to accompany them, they have the will to be with us in the improvements and in explaining to the citizens all the affectations that the works being carried out may entail. But also in working for more daily improvements, outside of the great investment, which also allow improving perception and service.
--- This didn't happen before.
--- Water under the bridge. Let's focus on what we are doing now and work hand in hand with a will for collaboration from both sides. In the end, I believe that working in this way with the same objectives is beneficial for the citizen.
--- How is the transfer of Rodalies going?
--- The Ministry of Transport and the Generalitat are negotiating it. One of the first things that Minister Óscar Puente said was to assure workers that there would be no change in their working conditions. Therefore, it is lived with tranquility within what it means for a service owner to opt for a different model. What the Generalitat is asking for is greater participation in the operation, but the Renfe brand will continue in Catalonia because it will be integrated into a mixed company with the Generalitat. In the end, the agreement reached is good news because Renfe will continue to provide the service in one way or another in Catalonia. It is an applicable formula for other territories.