Anyone who was in Barcelona on April 28, 2025, will remember the chaos. It wasn’t just about losing access to Netflix or the traffic light on the corner stopping its flash; it was the sudden silence of a city that, for a moment, came to a screeching halt. That “power outage” reminded us just how vulnerable we are to technology, especially when it catches you halfway through your journey on Line 3, deep underground, with only the light from your phone’s flashlight to guide you.
What for many was a “I was there” anecdote, for Transportes Metropolitanos de Barcelona (TMB) became a moment of soul-searching. That day, some twenty trains were stranded in the darkness of the tunnels, forcing nearly 3,000 people to walk along the tracks escorted by the police. A scene more typical of a dystopian film than of a Tuesday afternoon in the Eixample.
Autonomous trains and smart stations
To ensure we never have to go hiking underground again, the company has decided to take action with an emergency energy plan. The idea is as logical as it is necessary: to provide the network with a level of autonomy it previously lacked. As explained by Laia Bonet, president of TMB, the goal is for the metro to stop being held hostage by the general power grid when it decides to fail.
The main strategy involves installing large electric generators distributed throughout the network. This equipment isn’t designed to keep the service running as if nothing had happened—don’t expect the air conditioning to stay on full blast during a blackout—but rather to handle the essentials: moving the trains to the nearest station. This way, evacuations will take place on the platform, with lighting and safety measures in place, avoiding the danger of walking between the tracks and overhead wires.
But the plan goes beyond installing “giant batteries” in the tunnels. TMB has announced that new trains purchased from now on will come factory-equipped with the “last-mile” system. This is a technology featuring integrated batteries that allows the train to move autonomously over a short distance—enough to avoid getting stranded in the middle of a journey between stations.
In addition to powering the trains, these generators will keep the subway’s vital systems running: the public address system to prevent panic, internal communications, elevators for people with reduced mobility, and emergency lighting. In short, it’s about creating a safety bubble that holds its ground while the rest of the city gets its power back.
The rollout will begin this year with a critical upgrade at the Sagrera Metro Control Center, the network’s nerve center. However, seeing the system fully implemented will require some patience, as the infrastructure is expected to be ready and fully operational by 2028. Until then, let’s keep our fingers crossed that the general power grid behaves itself.
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