News
A car falls onto the tracks and forces the Rodalies R4 to close
The Sant Joan holiday morning began with a major incident on Rodalies. The R4 line was disrupted after a vehicle fell onto the tracks between Cerdanyola del Vallès and Terrassa Estació del Nord, forcing rail traffic to be halted for more than an hour.
The incident occurred at around 10:00 and affected people using the line to return home, travel around the Vallès or head to Barcelona after the festival night. On a public holiday, with different timetables and more irregular journeys, the disruption forced many passengers to change their plans on the spot.
Renfe activated an alternative road service to cover the affected section and maintain the connection between stations while work was carried out in the area. The buses absorbed some of the demand, although delays and waiting times were unavoidable.
Rail traffic resumed at around 11:10, once the danger had been removed and it had been confirmed that trains could run safely again. Even so, the incident left accumulated delays throughout the morning on a line that is particularly important for metropolitan mobility.
The Sistema d’Emergències Mèdiques treated the four occupants of the vehicle, who were taken to hospitals in Sabadell and Terrassa. All were in a less serious condition, according to the first information available.
For now, the exact causes of the accident have not been clarified. The car's fall into the railway area required the emergency services to be activated and the response to be coordinated with Renfe and the teams responsible for ensuring the safety of the track.
The R4 is one of the key Rodalies lines connecting Barcelona with the Vallès and other municipalities in the metropolitan area. Any closure on this corridor has an immediate effect on thousands of journeys, even on public holidays, because it serves as a connecting axis for work, leisure, family visits and return trips.
The incident leaves an unusual but very clear image of the fragility of everyday mobility. An accident outside the train can bring an entire line to a halt for hours and turn a morning of rest into a chain of waits, changes and pending mobile-phone alerts.