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Renfe apologises for eclipse chaos: 'We do not have any more trains'
The rush of travellers who went to Tarragona to see the eclipse overwhelmed Rodalies lines R15 and R16. Renfe has apologised to those affected and acknowledges that the reinforcements were insufficient, although it says it does not have more trains to increase capacity without harming other lines.
The company had previously reinforced the two busiest corridors. On the R15, capacity rose from around 1,000 to 1,600 places, an increase of 60%, while on the R16 capacity doubled, from around 1,800 to 3,600 places.
The increase was not enough in the face of the concentration of thousands of people travelling to Tarragona and the Terres de l’Ebre to position themselves within the path of totality. Stations such as Tarragona, Torredembarra and Altafulla recorded large crowds, long waits and problems accommodating all passengers on the return journey.
The day was made even more complicated by an infrastructure incident near Castelldefels during the afternoon. The problem temporarily reduced services to two trains per hour in each direction, precisely during the hours when many travellers were trying to reach southern Catalonia before the eclipse.
Renfe maintains that it used all available rolling stock and argues that withdrawing trains from other lines would have shifted the problem to other users of the network. The lack of rolling stock thus emerges as one of the main limits on responding to extraordinary events that concentrate demand in a few hours.
The return journey put the system under pressure again. Given the number of people waiting at the stations after the eclipse, an additional train was eventually activated during the night to pick up those who had not been able to board earlier services. Protección Civil went so far as to activate the pre-alert for the Ferrocat plan because of the crowds.
The episode has also opened a debate about planning. The Generalitat has acknowledged that the forecast for rail mobility was not sufficient, especially given a concentration of travellers much greater than expected in certain time slots.
The eclipse was exceptional, but the images of full platforms and overcrowded trains once again point to a far more everyday problem. Rodalies can add carriages for a particular day, but until it has more rolling stock, responding to sudden increases in passengers will continue to require choosing between reinforcing some lines or keeping service on the rest of the network unchanged.