- OPERATION

Sunday - Thursday 6:00 - 1:30, Friday & Saturday 6:00 - 2:30

Morning rush hours every 2-3 minutes, daytime every 4-6 minutes, every 15 minutes after midnight

- FARES (2007, in Euro)

Single ticket (no transfer) - 1.00 EUR

Metrobús (10 rides, no transfer between metro and buses) - 6.40 EUR

Day Pass for all transport - 3.80 EUR

2-Day Pass for all transport - 6.80 EUR

- All fares subject to change -

Spain's capital Madrid is situated right in the centre of the country and has over 3 million inhabitants. Here you can find one of Europe's most extensive and fastest growing metro networks with a total length of 228 km in 2003. In 2003 the city finished the largest metro expansion project undertaken in Europe in the last decades (only comparable to Mexico's or Seoul's subway expansion). In only 8 years, more than 100 km of new metro lines (mostly underground) were added to the network. Among other extensions, the former Line 8 and Line 10 were connected to form one cross-city line (now Line 10), a new Line 8 was built to connect the Juan Carlos I Exhibition Centre and Barajas Airport east of Madrid. L-9 became the first metro line to leave the city boundaries to run above ground to Arganda del Rey. From 1999 until 2003, MetroSur (L12) was built. This is a 40 km underground circular line connecting the major suburban towns south of Madrid like Alcorcón, Móstoles, Fuenlabrada, Getafe and Leganés. This line is connected to L-10, which was extended southwards from a new station, Casa de Campo, and serves as a feeder for three RENFE Cercanías lines into Madrid (C3, C4, C5).

Madrid's metro began operation in 1919 (Cuatro Caminos - Sol). The first lines (L-1 to L-5, L-10) were built in small profile, similar to the Paris Metro, using standard gauge but narrow tunnels, short platforms (60-90m) and low station halls. Stations of these first lines are located not deeper than 20 m below street level (except La Latina - L-5 - 28 m). In the 1970's and 1980's new lines (L-6, L-7, L-8, L-9) were built following new standards: big profile tunnels in order to use larger rolling stock, and deep stations (for example: Cuatro Caminos - L-6: 48 m, Avenida de América - L-7: 36 m - L-9: 44 m, Sáinz de Baranda - L-9: 43 m). Platforms can be reached via a series of escalators.

The latest extensions tried to keep stations as close as possible to the surface to allow easy access to platforms. Stations are very spacious though uniform in design and all are equipped with escalators in both directions and elevators. New transfer stations also have passengers in mind by offering either cross-platform transfer (Príncipe Pío) or just one or two escalators between lines (Mar de Cristal, Gregorio Marañón, Canal). New interchange points were built especially with Renfe's suburban rapid rail system (Cercanías), for example Príncipe Pío, Vallecas, Vicálvaro or Pitis, or with suburban buses (Moncloa, Avenida de América, Príncipe Pío). In May 2002, the extension of the Airport Metro (L-8) opened from Mar de Cristal to a more central terminus at Nuevos Ministerios (L-6, L-10 and Cercanías), where a check-in terminal was built. There is one intermediate transfer station at Colombia (L-9).