Barcelona's Moll Adossat, with restricted access and police surveillance, barely registers pirate taxis: only four reports so far in 2026. However, the traffic jams on the Ronda Litoral and queues of up to two hours to access the terminals have official taxi drivers at their limit.
The Port of Barcelona has managed to keep the phenomenon of pirate taxis at bay in Moll Adossat, where the cruise terminals are concentrated. Controlled access to this port area, with entry and circulation restrictions, has acted as a natural filter against unlicensed vehicles. According to data from the Port, in the first seven months of 2026, only four vehicles operating as taxis without authorization have been reported.
The access conditions to Moll Adossat are, according to the Port, “very different from those of other transport infrastructures with large public and open areas.” This control system, they explain, helps limit the emergence of irregular activities and facilitates police action. The surveillance is carried out by Port Police officers, who work alongside the Urban Guard, the Mossos d'Esquadra, and local police under the coordination of the Metropolitan Taxi Institute (IMET).
The traffic collapse suffocating official taxi drivers
While piracy is not a problem at the cruise terminals, official taxi drivers report another scourge: the permanent collapse at the access points. The Élite Taxi association has described the situation as “unsustainable” and claims that the traffic jams on the Ronda Litoral, with queues of up to four kilometres, turn every service into an odyssey. “It is unreasonable for a service to drop off or pick up passengers from a cruise to take more than two hours between the trip, waiting, and leaving the port,” they report from the sector's largest union.
This wasted time, according to Élite Taxi, makes any professional's workday unviable, drastically reduces profitability, and also harms the thousands of citizens waiting for a taxi elsewhere in Barcelona. The association has opened an internal debate about the possibility of ceasing to provide service in the cruise area while there are no minimum conditions that allow for normal operations. “This is not a measure against cruise passengers, but a direct consequence of planning that has condemned taxis to lose more than two hours per service for years,” they emphasise.
A mobility problem affecting the entire city
The conflict transcends the taxi sector. Every day, thousands of cruise passengers disembark at Moll Adossat and need transport to get around Barcelona. If official taxi drivers reduce their presence in the area, demand could shift to other means, such as public transport or chauffeur-driven vehicles (VTC), which already operate in the port with specific permits.
“This control system helps limit the emergence of irregular activities and facilitates police action when they are detected,” defends the Port of Barcelona.
For now, the Port insists that the data does not indicate a significant problem with irregular transport at the cruise terminals. However, traffic congestion and waiting times remain the main headache for taxi drivers, who are calling for urgent solutions. Meanwhile, the debate over whether to stop going to the cruise terminals remains open, and the decision could have a direct impact on the mobility of tourists arriving in the city.
For Barcelonans, the effect is twofold: on one hand, they see the number of available taxis on the street decrease when drivers get trapped in the port; on the other, they fear that the lack of official service will open the door to more pirate taxis in other areas of the city, such as the airport, where the problem is much more pronounced. The Port, for its part, assures that it maintains constant surveillance and will continue to collaborate with all administrations to ensure safe and orderly transport.
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