Overview
- Tens of thousands gathered in Tarragona to watch the solar eclipse and then converged on local stations, creating a sharp return peak that saturated Barcelona‑bound platforms.
- Police from the Mossos d’Esquadra and the Guàrdia Urbana temporarily restricted access to Tarragona’s platforms to prevent overcrowding and the risk of falls.
- Renfe increased seats on key services — doubling R16 to about 3,600 places and raising R15 to roughly 1,600 — but said it had no additional trains to meet the surge in demand.
- Protecció Civil put the Ferrocat railway contingency plan on pre‑alert and operators ran a late R11 ‘sweep’ service to clear queued passengers, with many people waiting over an hour to board.
- The disruption eased overnight and queued passengers were able to board by about 23:30, and local authorities are now reviewing the operation and crowd controls used that night.