Friday, October 13, was a working day, but it counts for little because it caught many users of the Rodalies R3 line of bridge. He cut between Mollet-Santa Rosa and Figaró It started, a day before, on October 12, but it was a holiday. And the weekend is not good for spending time either. cotton test. It will be this Monday, the first serious working day since the works to split the R3 between Mollet del Vallès and La Garrigawhen it will be possible to gauge how things are going, how travelers adapt, how the alternative road transport arranged by Renfe and how many train regulars switch to the private vehicleif they can, so that their mobility routine looks as little altered as possible. For anyone landing on the matter now, this is what is already happening in the L’Hospitalet-Vic-La Tor de Querol line and this is what will happen over the next three months. This Monday, in addition, works begin on the R2 between Vilanova and Castelldefels.
Until the beginning of November, R3 trains coming from Barcelona will only go as far as Mollet-Santa Rosa. From then on, they will advance one more station, that of Parets del Vallès. The line is cut to be able install one more road, which requires working on the same infrastructure. The presence of personnel does not allow the trains to circulate, hence the need to cut R3 in two. It may seem like a hassle, and it surely will be, but the doubling of the line is a historical claim which is understood when seeing that only one train passes every half hour, a limitation that is given by the fact that there is precisely only one railway lane and the convoys have to meet at certain seasons so as not to crash. Two ways will mean more efficiency and less impact in case a train suffers a problem. Right now, a stopped train means the R3 is instantly cut off.
Thus, during these three months, travelers will have to adjust their times and habits. But what is the best travel option, whether north or south, if we have to skip the cut? First, explain the options. You can go by train to mollet (or Figaró, if we go down from Puigcerdà or Vic) and then continue by alternative bus if the destination is one of the stations without service (Parets del Vallès, Granollers-Canovelles, Les Franqueses del Vallès, La Garriga and Figaró). If the goal is higher or lower, you can continue with the train from Figaró or Mollet (Parets, as of November) once the impact with the bus has been overcome. There’s a direct bus every half hour from Mollet to Centellesand vice versa, and then continue with rail transport if necessary.
Renfe has also arranged direct buses between Centelles and La Garriga and Barcelona (Sagrera) between 6 and 9 in the morning and between 4 and 9 p.m. In both directions and one comes out every half hour. The doubt arises alone, with two variables. What is faster, efficient and comfortable, take the bus directly to the middle of the route and continue by train or leave by train from the origin and skip the bus cutoff to return to the train? Let’s face it, as a variable, the time we need to get to the buses, which arrive and depart from the Rodalies Sagrera-Meridiana stationlocated at the intersection of Meridiana and Garcilaso Street, where metro lines 1 and 5 arrive.
They called him Trinitat
Then there is the traffic, because getting there or leaving is not the same. rush hourwith the knot of the Trinitat fumingthan passing the most complicated areas in a less difficult schedule. On Thursday and Friday, the direct routes from La Garriga and Centelles took 35 and 45 minutes, respectively, but those times will be extended on a weekday without traps. If we compare with the official Renfe schedules, from Sagrera-Meridiana it takes 20 minutes to get to Mollet-Santa Rosa. Once there, get off the train, take or wait for the bus, and 45 minutes to get to Centelles (about 80 if you take the one that stops at all stations).
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In total, just over an hour, everything went very well. So things are, everything seems to be at the mercy of trafficbecause although the bus is proposed as the fastest alternative to the train, at certain times can be a death trap. In any case, it is better to depend on a single means of transportation than to have to jump from one to another. This option, remember, is only available during peak times. That is to say, from nine in the morning to four in the afternoon there is no other choice but to bet on the railway with the bus just to skip the cut.
If you ask him, the Barcelona-Puigcerdà classic route, which without the R3 cut required about three hours to travel about 150 kilometers, with the works it will be significantly longer. In an unscientific but somewhat approximate calculation, and considering the new line schedulesif you only have to take the train and travel through the cut by bus, the trip lasts four hours. If you opt for the bus to Centelles, no one can take three and a half hours from us. But beware of users who go beyond Ripoll, because there are only seven trains a day and you have to trace the route very well so that everything fits together and we are not left stranded or waiting a couple of hours for the next convoy bound for the Tor de Querol to pass. France, for better and worse, is now a little further away.