The people who had to take the bus this Monday from Tarragona to Sant Vicenç de Calders (Tarragona), as part of the alternative transport plan by the railway line cut in Roda de Berà, did so with nervousness and confusion to know if they could make the right trip to the carrier strike called for this Monday.
The effects have been most evident in Sant Vicenç de Calders, where passengers have to get off the bus and take local trains. Many of them missed the train and had to wait between 20 and 30 minutes for the next convoy heading to Barcelona. Ariadna Viladomat, one of the passengers, explained to ACN that her bus was part of the minimum services, but “it arrived very quickly and we missed the train”.
Maika Segur, another bus user, described the day as “chaotic.” As he explained, at the Sant Vicenç de Calders station the informants told him that there was a strike this Monday and that, therefore, the posted timetables did not work. “They told us to go to the stops, wait and that with a little luck, a bus would arrive at the time we needed,” she said. “It’s a lack of respect for those of us who use public transport to go to work,” denounced Ségur, who believes that “they should be a little more organized”.
Due to the strike, direct buses between Sant Vicenç de Calders and Vila-seca – Cambrils and Reus have been canceled. On the other hand, the one which goes directly to Salou – PortAventura has been maintained. This Monday’s road transport strike also affects the bus service that Renfe contracted due to the railway shutdown. With the application of the minimum services decreed by the Government, daily shipments of the complementary service to the train have been reduced by 26%. Thus, 161 expeditions are offered, instead of the usual 600.
They do not arrive at transshipment
Ariadna Viladomat and Laura García are two friends who travel to Barcelona, one daily and the other more sporadically since the work is underway. Viladomat knew there was a strike, but explained that they had revised the minimum services and their bus was not affected. Finally, they arrived late in Sant Vicenç de Calders and the train had already left. They had to wait twenty minutes for the next one to arrive. “Other times, we could take the train when the bus arrived. This time it wasn’t like that, we lost a lot of time,” Viladomat said.
García takes one hour and twenty minutes and assures that the alternative bus service normally works “well”. On the other hand, this Monday, he estimates that it will take them two hours to arrive in Barcelona. A similar testimony is that of Gabriel Gras, who lives in Barcelona and makes this trip twice a week to return home to Tarragona.
“Today everything should have gone well, but when the bus arrived the train had already left,” Gras told ACN. In addition, he warned that we would have to wait for the next train from Lleida, which is usually already “full” and which today is fifteen minutes late. He also pointed out that the other times he used the alternative plan service, when transferring to Sant Vicenç de Calders, he was able to take the train directly without having to wait.
Some users regretted the lack of information on the bus strike and the minimum services decreed. Lucía Cobian and Izan Moreno, from municipalities affected by the railway shutdown, did not know that this Monday there was a stop for bus drivers. They both take the train every day then the bus to study in Tarragona. They point out that it takes up to two hours to complete a journey that previously took just over 40 minutes. Today they had to add a few extra minutes because of the strike.
More buses than expected
From the Bastestini station in Tarragona, the minimum service of the alternative transport plan has been developed without incident. In fact, more buses left than expected and announced by Renfe. However, since early in the morning the influx of people has been constant and, according to August González, who uses the alternative plan every Monday to travel to Barcelona, ”there are more people than usual.”
A feeling that Paula Alemán and Esther Jávega also had. Both arrived at the station on one of Tarragona’s EMT buses. “There were a lot of people, we couldn’t get on the bus,” said Alemán, who added that people were nervous for fear of not benefiting from the service. For his part, Jávega criticized the lack of knowledge of Renfe informants.
“I was told that no bus left before 8 p.m., but during strike hours we left at 7:30 a.m.,” explains this user who feared not arriving at work on time. He was finally able to get into the seven-thirty vehicle, as planned.
This nervousness and fear of arriving late pushed users like Ricard Kirchner to take the train from Barcelona to Tarragona three hours early. “As I fear everything, I took the first train in the morning,” explained this user who arrived after seven in the morning in the capital of Tarragona, although he did not go to work until midday.
Towards a common proposal
The general secretaries of the CCOO, Javier Pacheco, and of the UGT, Camil Ros, indicated that the road passenger transport strike, which has begun, is for “health” and to “give dignity” to this profession . This is how they expressed themselves at the start of the march, called by the two unions, in Ildefons Cerdà square, which ends in front of the Foment del Treball headquarters, in Barcelona.
According to the two organizations, the mobilization brought together around 800 people to demand early retirement at age 60. Ros denounced the “unpresentable” position of employers in the sector. He therefore hopes that after the demonstration “he will come down and sit down to negotiate”, so that a joint proposal can be made.
