Delays, the normality of trains in Mallorca: "This is unspeakable."

"When I'm lucky, I catch the train two or three minutes late. Then I feel lucky." So says Marta, a daily train user who has accepted that delays are a normal part of the rail service. Every morning, the platforms in the municipalities on the train are filled with people tensely staring at the supposedly informative screen, and there have been days, like this Wednesday, when even the time on the clocks is unreliable. When Marta arrived to take the train, the screen showed 9:22 a.m. The problem was that it was 9:34 a.m. "Will she be late based on the time on the screen or the real time?" she asked a worker who shrugged her back in ignorance, albeit with a very friendly smile.

This problem has left many train users baffled and asking themselves the same question. It has also caused longer delays than the usual ones. "The train from Palma to Manacor arrived 15 minutes late. This is unspeakable," complained one passenger. However, rail users have received no explanation as to why, yet another day, unpunctuality is the norm on the service. "They haven't said anything at all to us, but we're used to it because they're always late," said a group of people boarding the train from Palma to Consell.

Two drivers assured the ARA Baleares train company that the trains "are always a little late because the tracks are not in good condition." For his part, the president of the Train Users Association, Guillem Ramis, laments that the large number of subcontracts managing different areas of the Mallorca Railway Service has resulted in a lack of track maintenance. "The companies in charge of doing this are private companies, and they don't do it until it's economically worthwhile," he explained. During the last legislative term, there were already four companies responsible for maintaining different areas of the service.

Sources from the Mallorca Railway Service (SFM) denounce that during the previous term, "the ballast (the material that supports the track) was not beaten." Along the same lines, they assure that the company continues working "to catch up on missed maintenance and to make investments in infrastructure that improve operation and minimize incidents."

However, SFM admits that "in recent weeks, drivers are encountering more speed limits than usual, due to the existence of more speed bumps (normally caused by the effects of steel expansion due to heat) on the track, although they are common in any railway operation." Speed restrictions due to the barriers, in addition to pre-existing restrictions due to infrastructure improvement work on the Greco Street overpass, combined with the increased volume of passengers on rush-hour services, which slows down loading and unloading, are causing delays of between 5 and 10 minutes in some trains on these sections.