BarcelonaThe names of the protagonists were yet to be known and today they have been made public. Òscar Playà, until now the director of the Barcelona Metro (TMB) network, will be the new CEO of Rodalies Catalunya, the new company that will take over the transfer of Rodalies. This was explained by the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, and the Minister of Transport and Mobility, Óscar Puente, who this Monday morning staged the formal constitution of the new company, which will also be signed in front of a notary this same week.
The presidency of the new Rodalies Catalunya will also be Catalan, and will be held by the Minister of Territory, Sílvia Paneque. These are, therefore, the two names who will be at the head of the board of directors of this mixed company (formed by the Generalitat and Renfe, i.e. the State) and which has the mandate to operate – and improve – from now on the services of both Neighborhoods and Regionals. Sources from the Department of Territory have considered that Playà “was the best option” due to his long career, 20 years of experience “leading complex organizations” and his “extensive knowledge of the railway world”. From 2021, Playà served as general manager of the TMB metro network and, from now on, according to Government sources, he will be “involved in the management and direction of the company”.
Who’s who on the board of directors of the new Rodalies
Apart from the leadership of Paneque and Playà, on behalf of the Generalitat, the transfer commissioner Pere Macias, Marc Sanglas (ERC) and Teresa Torres, until now Rodalies’ financial manager, will also form part of the board of directors of Rodalies Catalunya. On Renfe’s part, the four seats on the board of directors will be occupied by current Renfe managers and a worker representative. From the management there will be Marta Torralvo, financial director; Miguel Ángel Vicente Calado, general manager of Renfe Viajeros; and Luis Manuel Suárez, the current general manager of Renfe Engineering and Maintenance. The fourth chair will be for Raquel González, from CCOO, who will occupy the position that was promised during the negotiations to the workers and will have a rotating shift on an annual basis between the different Renfe unions.
Today’s is a new step forward in the transfer that began in 2010 and that comes after a year of preparations. The new company is 50.1% owned by Renfe and 49.9% by the Generalitat. To compensate for this point, in the statutes it had been decided that the governance (presidency and general direction of the board of directors) would be Catalan: in other words, that decision-making would fall to the Generalitat. The formation of this company and the railway transfer was one of the points of the agreements with ERC to invest presidents Pedro Sánchez and Salvador Illa.
Island: “It’s not a name change, it’s a paradigm shift”
During the signing ceremony of the new company’s constitution, the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, recalled that the transfer is not an easy job, even overnight. “In this process we have gone step by step, because we have solved many questions of all kinds, legal, administrative and that require going little by little”, said the minister, who added that it is certain that “bringing management closer to the territory” will improve incidents. “At the same time, the agreement allows us to maintain safety standards and coordination with the Spanish system and also the absolute protection of workers’ labor rights, which will maintain the application of the Renfe group’s agreement,” Puente said.
In turn, President Illa has assured that the new company “is not a change of name, it is a change of paradigm”. “We do it with a deep conviction that public services are more effective when they are managed from the proximity of the territory”, added Illa, who also said: “It was one of the most complex challenges we had on the table and this is where the will of a Government is measured”, he said.
Both Puente and Illa have admitted, however, that the general improvement in Rodalies depends not only on management, but also on the arrival of new trains to replace the outdated fleet now in Catalonia and on investments to improve infrastructure. Both presidents also thanked the Republican Left and the previous minister, Ester Capella, for pushing the agreement forward.
