The city’s subsoil has a memory, and sometimes nature finds a way through even the most robust infrastructure. Daily commuters on the purple line had already noticed a clear change in pace recently: trains running slower than usual and unusually crowded platforms during rush hour on the final stretch of the route. The culprit is none other than the water from the heavy storms in early October, which raised underground pressure to the point of causing a crack in the concrete of a tunnel built in the 1980s.
To address the root cause of the problem, service on Line 2 will be completely suspended between the La Pau and Gorg stations starting this Monday, November 2. The continuous service interruption will last for an entire month, until December 3, during which time workers will inject concrete to stabilize the track bed, allowing service to return to normal on December 4.
The cause of the recent delays
Until now, trains passing through the Artigues and Sant Roc stops were operating at a limited speed of 15 km/h. This minor structural damage, which slightly affected the track-switching area, was detected by TMB technicians during a routine inspection following the rains.
Initially, the decision was made to reduce speed and monitor the area continuously—a temporary Band-Aid solution that ensured safety but slowed down the journey and caused passenger backlogs. However, structural repairs were inevitable. Xavier Flores, CEO of TMB, explains that carrying out this work exclusively at night would have been unsustainable, as the project would have dragged on indefinitely and residents would have suffered “a degraded service for a long time.”
Alternative Routes to Get Around the Service Outage
To ensure that the temporary closure does not cut off residents in the area, a free shuttle bus service will be launched. This route will follow the surface route for the just over 8 kilometers separating the stations affected by the closure, with buses running every four to nine minutes.
Beyond this special bus, there are other ways to get around the construction using the regular transit network. Those who need to get around the area can take Metro Line L4 from La Pau station or Line L10 from Gorg, as well as the H10 city bus or the T4, T5, and T6 tram lines.
