 Hey everyone, and welcome back to Transit Explained. When you think of transit, you might think of London or Tokyo, but one of the countries building the most transit is Spain, and nowhere quite as much as Madrid. I've talked about the incredible Spanish high speed rail network and one of Barcelona's most interesting metro lines, but Madrid's metro is something very special, with more than 12 lines, and in today's video you're going to find out all about it. A huge shout out to Betel, a real Madrid metro expert who sent me clips and information from Madrid for this video. I also want to give a shout out to Lindsay Tobias for their help with this video. Now if you're not already, consider supporting me via Patreon or by joining my YouTube membership to help me explain more complex transportation networks, and to help create more conversations about better public transportation around the world. Of course, this is the year of the Transit Explained video for me, so if you think there's a certain system I should cover, make sure to leave a comment down below. As always, let's start with getting familiar with Madrid. The city sits hundreds of meters above sea level along the Manzanarres, which runs through the city from northwest to southeast. Of course, Madrid is famous for its football teams. Here is the Metropolitan Arena, home of Atlético Madrid, and here is Santiago Bernabas Stadium, home of Real Madrid. I also want to point out the Gran Vía, which is one of the most important boulevards in the city. In terms of transportation infrastructure, the city has three major passenger rail stations – Atosha in the south, Chamartín in the north, both of which serve Ave high-speed trains, and Príncipe Pio in the west, which serves long-distance buses. All three are served by suburban trains as well as the Metro. There's also a cross-city tunnel for use by high-speed trains, which should open hopefully relatively soon, as well as a bypass line around the city. At the same time, Madrid has a singular major passenger airport, Berrajas, located to the north. Now comes time to look at the existing system. Line 1 opened in 1919, and currently has 33 stations over around 23 km of track. Line 1 serves a number of major stations in the city, including Chamartín, Sol, and Atosha, running from the north to the center, south, and then southwest. Line 1 is a fairly urban line, not extending too far from the center, but serving some new developments to the southwest, where it was extended back in 2007. It also has an incredibly sharp turn a little north of Atosha that probably wouldn't pass muster on a metro line these days. Line 2 opened in 1924, and has 20 stations across 14 km, and also serves Sol Station. The line runs east-west to the east of Sol, and mostly north-south to the west, which means it actually ends up interchanging with Line 1 in two different locations. As with Line 1, Line 2 is very urban, and doesn't extend deep into the suburbs. Line 3 first started operating in 1936, and has a total of 18 stations spread over 16 km of track, including Sol, where it interacts with lines 1 and 2. Line 3 generally runs in a north-south orientation west of the cross-city suburban rail tunnel. Like lines 1 and 2, it kind of goes all over the place in the city center, making a big U-shape turn to serve embajadores, which is pretty cool. It's actually pretty interesting to contrast this with the southern extension, that also opened in 2007, and is mainly long, straight runs. Line 4 first opened in 1944, and runs from the northern terminus of Line 1, which along with Line 4 was extended to Meet in 07, which was really a great year for the metro. The line has 23 stations overall on a 16 km alignment, and runs from the north to the northeast via an arc-shaped alignment, cutting back across the city to the north of the city center, and connecting with Line 1 once again, as well as lines 2 and 3. Line 5 opened over 20 years later in 1968, and runs from the northeast to the southwest through the city center. Somewhat interestingly, just like Line 3, Line 5 has a sharp U-turn in the city center to connect to Embajadores, and the line was also the first to feature a substantial above-ground section. The line also includes a short section which runs under the Gran Vía. Line 6 opened in 1979, but was fully completed as a central circular line in the mid-90s. The line is the most used in the system based on some measures, which once again goes to show the power of circular lines. Likely as a byproduct of this, Line 6 was the first in the system to utilize the larger train standard. The loop is a total of 23 km long with 28 stations, and major connections at Príncipe Pío, a major suburban rail hub, as well as Nuevos Ministerios and Avenida de América, with mostly lines we haven't discussed quite yet. Line 7 opened 5 years before Line 6 in 1974, and is 33 km long with 31 stations. The line extends from the northwest, then runs south and turns east to pass through the city center east-west, notably missing a connection with Line 1 despite crossing it, something which happens in a few places on the Madrid Metro. The line then continues east, eventually extending outside of Madrid with the Line 7 extension in the eastern zone of the system called Metro Este. The extension begins at the station which serves the Metropolitan Stadium. Line 8 didn't open until 1998 and also got an extension in the glorious year of 2007, which brought it up to 16 km long with a somewhat meager 8 stations. The line runs northeast from Nuevos Ministerios to Berjas Airport, being extended to its very nice new terminal back in 2007. Line 9 is 29 stations on the longest line in the system at over 39 km long. The line first opened in 1980 and extends to the northwest of the city one stop on the suburban railway away from the terminus of Line 7. The line then cuts across the north end of the city before cutting south across the eastern portion of the core and then traveling to the southeast of the city where it continues on the TFM extension, of which most runs on the surface. Line 10 is currently 31 stations on 36 km of track, but has a very complicated origin story. The northern section of the line from Tres Olifos is all one large extension opened in, you guessed it, 2007, to the north of the city. As it turns out, the section starting at the next station south all the way to Nuevos Ministerios, stopping at Chamartín on the way, was actually originally known as Line 8, though obviously that's no longer the case. This portion of the line also serves Santiago Bernabéu Stadium. The entire section south from here used to be part of a line known as S or Suburbano. This line used a narrower style of train than the rest of Line 8, or 10, and needed substantial upgrading from Alonso Martinez to Eluche, as well as a new connector tunnel bridging these two lines. Now, when Line 10 was extended further to the south, the portion from Casa de Campo to Atosho was transferred over to Line 5, with cross-platform transfers available at Casa del Campo. The line also has cross-platform transfers in a dual island format with Line 6 at Príncipe Pío. Line 11 is a short, 7-station, 8-kilometer line running southwest from Plaza Alíptica on Line 6. The line first opened in 1998. Now, remember when I said Line 9 was the longest line? I lied. The longest line, roughly 40 kilometers in length, with 28 stations, is Line 12, which opened in 2003. Line 12 is very strange, as it's a loop line entirely south of Madrid, which serves a number of suburban towns, only connected to the rest of the system via Line 10. The final line on the metro is the R or Ramal, a shuttle train that was formally a branch of Line 2, which connects between Opera and Príncipe Pío, over roughly 1 kilometer, being first constructed in the 1920s. Now, I mentioned the suburban trains or Sercanías a number of times in this video, and that system will get its own future video. That said, the system has a loop of stations without a looping service, and two two-track tunnels between Atosha and Chamartén, as well as a major hub at Príncipe Pío. There's also service to the airport. Now, the city also has its own metro ligero or light metro system, with three or four lines depending on how you count them, which would definitely be called LRT in North America, but essentially amount to fairly nice, often heavily grade separated tram lines all over the place. Along with the numerous existing lines on the metro, Madrid is investing in a number of extensions. That said, there are perhaps less than you might expect, as the city invests heavily in upgrading and improving existing infrastructure, which I will discuss later on in the video, as well as non-metro extension programs. The first extension dimension is to Line 11, which will be extended from Plaza Olíptica to Conde de Casal via Atosha. This line will likely be extended further to the north and east, providing relief to Line 6, and providing additional circumferential service to the eastern extent of the network. Eventually, plans call for running the line all the way to Berrahas Airport. There are also further plans to extend Line 3 to the south to provide another connection to Line 12, as well as to extend Line 5 north northeast to the airport. I also want to point out that sometimes when lines connect, the different portions of the stations are known by different names, which can be a bit confusing. Now, Madrid, like London, New York, as well as Berlin, uses two different train standards with shorter, narrower trains operating on Lines 1 to 5 and R, and longer, wider trains operating on Lines 6 to 12. The narrower trains are 2.3 meters wide, with three doors per side per car. Lines 1 to 4 were all constructed, with 60 meter long platforms, which can accommodate four-car trains. Line 5 was originally built with 90 meter platforms, while Lines 1 and 3 were actually retrofitted for longer platforms, enabling all of these lines to operate with six-car trains. Narrow trains have actually also operated on the wide gauge lines before as well, akin to the style of operation with gap-filling plates also seen on Berlin's U-Bahn. This is possible because all of the lines use the same 1 centimeter wider than standard gauge, and power systems have been made interoperable. Those wide loading gauge lines have trains which are 2.8 meters wide with four doors per side per car, with most of each line featuring roughly 110 meter platforms which can serve six-car trains. That said, Metro Sir and the Line 9 TFM extensions both operate shorter three-car trains due to lower demand, while the Metro Estee and Metro Norte expansions of Lines 7 and 10 respectively are both built with shorter than usual 90 meter platforms, also served by three-car trains. The extensions are referred to as Lines 7, 9, and 10B respectively versus the main lines, which are Lines 7, 9, and 10A. Now to be fair, these extensions are actually operated in a fairly unusual way. Instead of being continuous services, a linear, albeit cross-platform transfer is required for onward journeys. This seems like an odd policy for a few reasons. For one, you could at least seemingly through run shorter trains onto the main section of the line off peak if slots are an issue during peak periods. Another option would be running full-length trains onto the extension with selectively open doors so some car doors simply wouldn't open. Now you may have noticed that on the Madrid Metro map or in other locations, that sections of the network are sometimes referred to as Metro Norte, Metro Este, and Metro Sir. These denote the Line 10 extension north, the Line 7 extension east, and all of Line 12. It's an interesting approach to that. Now, the Line 9 extension is known as TFM, and this refers to the P3 operator that extended Line 9. Now I mentioned in Europe's mini metros video, but Madrid uses really small trains, the smallest I'd argue of any major metro system in the world. And that's part of how Madrid, a city not too different in size from Toronto, can have several times as many subway lines. Madrid's larger subway trains are still substantially smaller than the standard trains in Toronto for example, and a substantial number of lines are operated with trains shorter than 100 meters. Of course these smaller trains punch above their weight, because they have lots of doors, and all trains on the system feature longitudinal seating. At the same time, when capacity has become an issue, lines have had their platforms extended, meaning short trains haven't been a huge barrier. Many models of rolling stock on the system also have distinctive looks, from the rounded submarine-like front of the 2000 series, to the swept-back front fascia on all of the other series, sans the 5000. Most of the newer train models with the swept look also feature fully walk-through designs. Now, rather uniquely for a metro system, the entire Madrid metro uses overhead wire electrification. This is usually done with rigid catenary. Much of this is possible due to the extra space provided by the rounded tunnel profiles used on the system. There are however some distinctions, from line to line, as lines 1, 4, 5, 6, and 9 use 600 volt DC power, while the rest of the lines use 1500 volt DC. Of course, as you'd expect, many stations on the Madrid metro use this Spanish solution, typically with the handful of busy stations on each line using it. You probably won't be surprised by it, but despite being over 100 years old, the Madrid metro is incredibly modern and high quality. Even historic stations are in pretty good condition, notably better than New York or even Paris, and communications-based train control is widely deployed, a natural way to increase capacity with such small trains. That said, somewhat uniquely for such a modern system, the Madrid metro doesn't have platform screen doors, nor does it have any automated lines. Like some other rail systems in Europe, the Madrid metro runs on the wrong side, due to the system's construction before Spain switch the side of the road which people drive on. The historic stations usually have an arched profile, very similar to those seen in a place like Paris. Two stations on line 10 have cross-platform transfers, allowing connections on to lines 5 and 6. These are built in the double parallel island format. The metro has a lot more interesting features. For example, public services like libraries in a metro station, similar to those seen in the Santiago metro, which I covered last year. The system also has a very iconic entrance design reminiscent again of the Paris metro. One feature of the Madrid metro that always impressed me is just how much of it is underground. Only a small fraction of the system is not in tunnel. Now, as you probably know, I am a big advocate for putting transit above ground where possible, but as some have pointed out, if you're incredibly effective at construction and planning, you may be able to bury transit at very minimal costs. And if this leads to less pushback for expansion and better urban integration, then I guess that seems worthwhile. Of course, Madrid does this by doing things like putting metro lines in before development happens, and by using smaller trains. Despite being so long and being suburban, none of line 12, for example, is above ground. Another thing that's quite unique to Madrid's metro is the fantastic website and online presence of the system. Communicating your transit system is incredibly important, especially if it's fast-growing or complex, and the clean and easy to understand design and numerous really insightful articles on the metro's website were a really pleasant surprise. One of the articles I read on the website noted something somewhat novel that Madrid does to manage station and line crowding, again helping to better manage without platform screen doors and with small trains. By monitoring the rate of entry through the fare barriers, the system can actually slow down the rate which passengers board, automatically, to prevent dangerous crowding levels, which is really smart. This kind of smart investment in design is something you see time and time again on the metro. One recently added feature that stuck out to me was the supremely modern and well-designed fare gates and ticket machines, which are being rolled out alongside additional concourse level next train screens. The system also has high quality multilingual signage and wavefinding that is really easy to understand. Details like this may seem minor when you don't have a good transit system, but they are also the type of thing that divides good systems from great ones. And so with that, we have the Madrid Metro, a large comprehensive metro system that is not only really fun to explore, but that also provides a ton of learnings for systems around the world, especially those that don't necessarily need massive amounts of capacity everywhere. Let me know what your favorite feature of the Madrid Metro is in the comments, and thanks for watching!