These last few days have represented a horribilis week for rail transport: the AVE tragedy in Adamuz (Córdoba) was linked to the misfortune of a train derailment in Gelida, also with fatal consequences. Despite everything, it is important to remember that the railway is today the safest means of land transport, very comparable to the air sector, and with a key role in the future of our society.
Last Tuesday, storm Harry caused major disruptions to the Catalan railway network, among which, unfortunately, the Gelida derailment stands out, caused by the collapse of a retaining wall, with the sad death of a young Rodalies train driver. Unfortunately, this is an event that, in recent years, has been repeated in a very similar way (also with tragic consequences), and which we cannot allow to happen again. But from this specific storm, two main conclusions can be drawn: that climate change is a fact that increasingly affects infrastructures more frequently and severely, and that the chronic disinvestment in Rodalies weakens the network in the face of disruptions and incidents.
Unfortunately, the railway in Catalonia is not experiencing the best moment in its history: the overinvestment that, during the last 30 years, the Spanish State has dedicated to building a high-speed network that perhaps we did not need, caused the abandonment of conventional networks, Rodalies and regional services, and freight traffic. In the specific case of Catalonia, the lack of investment accumulated over the last decades was a fact recognized by Minister Puente last Wednesday (which is to be appreciated).
This serious situation recently began to reverse thanks to the Pla de Rodalies 2020-2030, a program of realistic investments, already initiated and which, for now, is being fulfilled. But it is essential that, as the minister also recognized, this pace of interventions does not stop and is maintained over the next few years. In addition, in recent months, the Railway Strategy of Catalonia has also been approved, a strategic document that for the first time defines what the future of the railway in our land should be, in the medium and long term, according to technical criteria, applying a scientific, analytical and, above all, statistical vision. It is our duty as a society to monitor and demand that both the Pla de Rodalies and the Railway Strategy be applied and developed over the next few years.
For their part, the frequent meteorological phenomena derived from the climate crisis, of which we have been repeatedly witnesses (and also victims) in recent years, are pushing the resistance of our mobility infrastructures to the limit. It does not take much effort to remember the number of roads, tracks, bridges... that in recent years have been seriously affected by the different storms.
At this point, and taking into account that mobility is a basic human need, from now on we must begin to claim the strategic value of transport infrastructures, especially the railway, the most efficient and sustainable means of transport and which, therefore, also stands as the main tool to minimize the climate crisis. For this reason, now is the time to defend our right to mobility, our right to efficient and guaranteed transport, in the same way that we defend education, security or health. We must adopt a decisive stance for the railway, because the best way to care for the earth and to build a better future for our children is to defend what helps us guarantee our rights.