R-4 accident cost €860,000

Only two kilometers from the site of Tuesday’s Rodalies R-4 train accident caused by a landslide, another accident with the same characteristics took place on March 16 2011 costing Adif at least 806,000 euro in repairs.

This data comes from a report submitted by the commission for the investigation of rail accidents in October 2011, in which the conclusion that there was a “low risk” of landside in that “specific area” was drawn. The report discusses the improvements that had to be made on the 250 meter section of the trench that collapsed at that time. They involved 10 meter high walls in the terrain which was made up of a large granite boulder, surrounded by a sandy “easily eroded” stone. The characteristics of the terrain described are very similar to those of the place where Tuesday’s landslide happened.

Damià Calvet, minister of territory and sustainability, yesterday attributed the Vacarisses accident of to “a lack of investment and maintenance in the Rodalies network that we have been reporting for some time”. The minister maintains that the only way to improve the management of this key transport system is for an integral transfer of the service to take place and, for this reason, announced that he will soon be meeting with Adif president, Isabel Pardo, and Renfe President, Isaias Taboas, to discuss the state of the railway network in Catalonia before considering the issue of transfering it to the Spanish government.

Calvet recalled the state’s failure to meet the investment obligations for the Catalan Rodalies network saying: “They promised us an investment of 4 billion euro and only 13% of it has materialized.”