Unusual day in Barcelona, Spain and Southern Europe after the general blackout that has left millions of people without electricity and telephone network for the whole day.
From house lights to traffic lights, from subway trains to medical centers, Spain is in an exceptional situation and Barcelona has also experienced hours of uncertainty after it has been impossible to communicate or move around with the usual means for many hours.
After some hours of surprise and ignorance, the City Council has reacted to cover the most basic needs, such as transport, hospitals or people who, for various reasons, can not get home.
Transport: state of the metro, bus, streetcar and Rodalies lines.
At 7am the City Council announced the state of transport in the city.
Streetcar
Lines T1, T2 and T3 circulate normally.
Lines T4, T5 and T6 circulate with timetable alterations.
Metro
All metro lines are operating normally.
City and intercity buses
The service operates normally.
Airport and Port of Barcelona
Airport
The airport is also operating normally, as on a normal day.
Port of Barcelona
The Port of Barcelona has reported that it has also resumed normal service.
Rodalies, the last to recover service.
At 06:30h. Rodalies has announced that it has suspended the service due to the “instability of the electrical voltage”. We tell you all the details here.
It has not been until 12h. noon that Rodalies has announced on its Whatsapp channel that recovers the partial service of some lines, and will offer free transport the rest of the day. We tell you all the details here.
How to recover your cancelled train or metro ticket?
Thousands of users lost their ticket yesterday due to the outages generated during the blackout. We tell you how to recover your ticket.
Normality in the economic activity
The Mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, appeared early this morning to explain that economic activity has resumed normally in the city. City Hall offices and workers are 100% available and sectors such as markets and Mercarbarna are operating normally.
Major events, such as the April Fair or the Champions League match tomorrow in Montjuïc will also be able to resume normally today.
What the law says about not going to work on days like the blackout
The Statute of the Worker observes to be absent on days like yesterday, when there is a cause of force majeure. We explain the details in our article.
Basic instructions if you are in Barcelona
The City Council has passed on some basic instructions on how to get around during these blackout hours.
- Limit your movements to the maximum and do them only if strictly necessary.
- Go to hospitals or health centers only in case of emergency.
- Prioritize walking: the subway is not working and there is only bus service.
- Call 112 only for real emergencies, not for information.
- Get information only from official sources and reliable media. Avoid spreading hoaxes.
- Save your cell phone battery whenever possible.
Barcelona enables three sports centers as shelters for the night
The City Council has enabled three municipal sports centers for those who can not return home or need a place to spend the night can take shelter because of the blackout.
As announced by the mayor, Jaume Collboni, the spaces opened exceptionally are:
- CEM Estació del Nord (near Arc de Triomf).
- CEM Can Ricart (near Plaça Catalunya)
- CEM Can Dragó (near Fabra i Puig)
- CEM España Industrial ( c. de Muntadas, 1)
In addition, we do not rule out opening new centers if the situation requires it. In these shelters it will be possible to rest, use basic services and receive food.
For homeless people, the City Council has also set up the Centre d’Urgències i Emergències Socials de Barcelona (CUESB) and the Centre d’Acolliment Nocturn d’Emergències (CANE), adding up to 230 additional places.
Metro open all night Monday
In an evening appearance to explain the night device the City Council has announced that the subway will operate all night to facilitate the mobility of people blocked at some point in the city.
The bus network will operate until 00h.
Schools are back to normal
Catalunya has announced that it expects that on Tuesday 29 April schools will operate normally in view of the expectation that the power supply will be fully recovered during the night. We explain all the details here.
[News in update].