In Catalonia, Renfe, Adif and the Catalan government have introduced a new cleaning method to remove graffiti from trains in 15 minutes. Officials say the chemical absorbent product can clean one square metre of paint in that time, compared with about an hour using the previous method.
The aim is to reduce disruption across the rail network, where graffiti can cause delays, lower train capacity, timetable changes and even train immobilisation. Officials said two trains are stopped each day on average because of graffiti, with costs of €7.4 million last year and 1.4 million passengers affected.
The product must be applied carefully because of its chemical composition. Workers prepare the area, gather materials such as buckets, scourers and gloves, then apply the product, leave it to act for 10 to 15 minutes, scrub the surface and remove the residue.
At present, train cleaning can only be carried out at five designated stations in Catalonia: Estació de França, Sant Andreu, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Vilanova i la Geltrú and Ripoll. The plan is to add nine more points to improve coverage across the territory.
According to Renfe, Adif and the Catalan government, the method has been in use for six months and has already been used to clean 55,100 square metres of graffiti, the equivalent of seven football pitches. The wider goal is prevention, with more cameras and panels planned at Catalan stations, plus drones and a pilot programme using surveillance dogs.
In 2025, 970 acts of vandalism were recorded on trains, with nearly a thousand complaints linked to graffiti. Renfe says the people responsible are well-organised groups who complete the graffiti in seconds, which makes identification difficult. More information on rail news in Catalonia is available on our news page.