The 2030-2040 Railway Services Plan of the Generalitat includes fragmenting the R4 so that trains from Manresa do not reach Penedès, but rather Martorell or L'Hospitalet. This measure, planned for 2027-2028, aims to minimise the impact of incidents.
The Generalitat of Catalonia has revealed details of the 2030-2040 Railway Services Plan, presented at the end of June, which includes a key modification for the R4 Rodalies line. The proposal, framed within the first phase of the plan (2027-2028), consists of fragmenting the current route so that trains connecting Manresa and Bages do not have to traverse the entire line to Penedès, but rather their furthest head will be Martorell or even L'Hospitalet de Llobregat. The goal is to improve the reliability of a route particularly affected by incidents.
According to sources consulted by Regió7, experts not involved in the plan's development consider the measure "very positive" for users in Manresa and Bages and assert that "it makes complete sense" from an operational standpoint. Currently, trains departing from or arriving at Manresa travel up to 143 kilometres to Sant Vicenç de Calders, passing through Vallès, Barcelona, and Baix Llobregat. This long journey, specialists explain, "considerably increases the likelihood of delays and the propagation of these delays," as any incident in Penedès or Baix Llobregat directly affects the trains from Bages.
The plan includes three temporal phases. In the first phase, for 2027-2028, a "change of heads" for the R4 is anticipated, although the official document does not provide further details. Experts interpret that trains originating or destined for Manresa will cease to operate to Vilafranca del Penedès or Sant Vicenç de Calders, and will have Martorell (62 kilometres away) or L'Hospitalet (40 kilometres away) as their endpoints. In contrast, trains servicing Terrassa already have shorter routes: 62 km from Martorell and 40 km from L'Hospitalet.
The fragmentation aims to ensure that the frequent incidents affecting the Rodalies network — exacerbated during the first quarter of 2026 — have a lesser impact on the overall line. Until infrastructure issues are resolved with investments that will take years, "having trains that operate such long routes is a burden," experts point out. Under normal conditions, long journeys should not prevent adherence to schedules, but the reality of the Catalan network — with numerous breakdowns and delays — means that any small incident propagates quickly.
For Bages travellers, the measure will represent a significant change: they will no longer be able to travel directly by train from Manresa to stations like Vilafranca del Penedès or Sant Vicenç de Calders without a transfer. However, experts believe that the gain in reliability will compensate for this inconvenience. "Users from Manresa are the ones who suffer the most from current delays; shortening the journey will drastically reduce the likelihood that a problem at the other end of the line will affect them," they explain.
The 2030-2040 plan also includes improvements to other Cercanías lines, but the R4 is a priority due to its high volume of passengers and its history of incidents. The Generalitat expects that the necessary works and operational changes will be carried out between 2027 and 2028, although specific timelines will depend on budget availability and coordination with Adif and Renfe.
For now, Bages users will have to wait just over a year for the measure to materialise. In the meantime, the R4 will remain a long-distance line with the resulting delays. The Generalitat insists that the overall Rodalies plan requires multimillion-euro investments in the long term, but that measures like the fragmentation of the R4 are "immediate and viable" steps to improve the daily experience of travellers.
