The R4 is a line of

Rodalies de Catalunya Rodalies de Catalunya (; "Commuter Railways of Catalonia") is the main Commuter rail, commuter and regional rail system in the Spain, Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia. It is administered by the Generalitat de Catalunya, Government of C ...

's Barcelona commuter rail service, operated by

Renfe Operadora Renfe (, ), officially Renfe-Operadora, is Spain's national State-owned enterprise, state-owned railway company. It was created in 2005 upon the split of the former Red Nacional de los Ferrocarriles Españoles, Spanish National Railway Netwo ...

. It runs northwards from the northern limits of the

province of Tarragona Tarragona (; ) is a province of eastern Spain, in the southern part of the autonomous community of Catalonia. It is bordered by the provinces of Castellón, Teruel, Zaragoza, Lleida and Barcelona and by the Mediterranean Sea. The province's po ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, passing through the inland

Alt Penedès Alt Penedès () is a comarca (county) in the Penedès region, in Catalonia, Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarif ...

region. The line then continues towards central Catalonia, describing a U-shaped route through the Barcelona area. According to 2008 data, the line's average weekday ridership is 105,935, the highest on any line of the Barcelona commuter rail service after the . R4 trains use the

Meridiana Tunnel The Meridiana Tunnel is a railway tunnel in the Spanish city of Barcelona. Built in the 1970s, it replaced the previously existing railway that ran in a cutting in the middle of Avinguda Meridiana through the city centre. Services The tunnel is ...

in Barcelona, where they share tracks with Rodalies de Catalunya's Barcelona commuter rail service lines , and , as well as Girona commuter rail service line and regional rail line , calling at

Sants Sants is a neighbourhood in the southern part of Barcelona. It belongs to the district of Sants-Montjuïc and is bordered by the districts of l'Eixample, Eixample to the northeast, Les Corts (district), Les Corts to the northwest, and by the mun ...

Plaça de Catalunya Plaça de Catalunya (, meaning in English "Catalonia Square"; sometimes referred to as Plaza de Cataluña, its Spanish name) is a large square in central Barcelona that is generally considered to be both its city centre and the place where the ol ...

and

Arc de Triomf The Arc de Triomf (), translated: Arch of Victory, is a memorial arch in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It was built by architect Josep Vilaseca i Casanovas as the main access gate for the 1888 Barcelona World Fair. The arch crosses over the wi ...

stations. South of Barcelona, they operate on the Sant Vicenç de Calders–Vilafranca del Penedès–Barcelona railway, using as their southernmost terminus, north of Barcelona they operate on the Lleida–Manresa–Barcelona railway, with no services terminating north of . Together with lines R1, and R3, the R4 (then simply numbered line 4) started services in 1989 as one of the first lines of the

Cercanías The commuter rail systems of Spain's major metropolitan areas are called ''Cercanías'' () in most of Spain, ''Rodalia'' () in the Valencian Community, ''Aldiriak'' () in the Basque Country and ''Rodalies'' () in Catalonia. There are twelve ''C ...

commuter rail system for Barcelona, known as

Rodalies Barcelona Rodalies de Catalunya (; "Commuter Railways of Catalonia") is the main Commuter rail, commuter and regional rail system in the Spain, Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia. It is administered by the Generalitat de Catalunya, Government of C ...

. In 1995, the branch line to Cerdanyola Universitat railway station opened for passenger service and was incorporated as part of line R4. With the creation of Barcelona commuter rail service line in 2005, the branch line was transferred to the R7. In the long-term future, it is projected that the route of the R4 south of Barcelona will be transferred to the R2, and all its services will terminate at Barcelona–El Prat Airport.

List of stations

The following table lists the name of each station served by line R4 in order from south to north; the station's service pattern offered by R4 trains; the transfers to other

lines, including both

commuter Commuting is periodically recurring travel between a place of residence and place of work or study, where the traveler, referred to as a commuter, leaves the boundary of their home community. By extension, it can sometimes be any regular o ...

and

regional rail Regional rail is a public transport, public rail transport service that operates between towns and cities. These trains operate with more stops than inter-city rail, and unlike commuter rail, operate beyond the limits of urban areas, connectin ...

services; remarkable transfers to other transport systems; the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in which each station is located; and the fare zone each station belongs to according to the

Autoritat del Transport Metropolità The Metropolitan Transport Authority (, ATM) is a public consortium intended to coordinate the operation and project the expansion of the public transport system in the Barcelona metropolitan area. It is made up of the Government of Catalonia a ...

(ATM Àrea de Barcelona) fare-integrated public transport system and Rodalies de Catalunya's own fare zone system for Barcelona commuter rail service lines.

2018 and 2019 derailments

On 20 November 2018, a train on this line derailed due to a landslide between the Vacarisses and Vacarisses Torreblanca stations, causing one death and 49 injuries. Another derailment occurred on 8 February 2019 between

Sant Vicenç de Castellet Sant Vicenç de Castellet () is a municipality in Bages county in Catalonia, Spain. It is situated near the confluence of the Llobregat river and the Cardener river. The two railway stations, in close proximity to each other, serve the FGC line ...

and

Manresa Manresa () is the capital of Bages county, located in the central region of Catalonia, Spain. Crossed by the river Cardener, it is an industrial area with textile, metallurgical, and glass industries. The houses of Manresa are arranged aro ...

, killing the driver and injuring several other people.

References

Bibliography

External links

Rodalies de Catalunya official website

Schedule for the R4
(PDF format)
R4 Rodalies (rod4cat)
on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

. Official Twitter account by Rodalies de Catalunya for the R4 with service status updates (tweets usually published only in Catalan) *
R4 (rodalia 4)
on Twitter. Unofficial Twitter account by Rodalia.info monitoring real-time information about the R4 by its users.

at trenscat.cat {{Rodalies de Catalunya 4 Railway services introduced in 1989